Adaptation to Climate Change by Agri- Environmental Policy in Finland

An agri-environmental subsidy program that states water protection as one of its main objectives has been in place in Finland since 1995. The programme is the main tool within Water Framework Directive (WFD) to control nutrient load from agricultural areas in Finland. In this work we created story-lines for agricultural production influenced by climate change on a small agricultural catchment in southern Finland. We used dynamic, catchment scale model to simulate the influence of increased precipitation and temperature on runoff and nutrient leaching with and without different water protection methods, including the changes in production and field use. This study showed that it is possible to decrease inorganic N load by correct combination of crop and water protection methods. The most effective method is nutrient cycling (organic farming) though that happens on the cost of yield. If the target is to reduce suspended sediment load, more effective and/or targeted measures are needed