Interpreting and reinterpreting agri-environmental policy: communication, trust and knowledge in the implementation process

The role and importance of street-level bureaucrats in policy implementation is now widely recognised. So far as the EU's agri-environmental policy is concerned, however, a focus on the attitudes and behaviour of programme recipients (farmers and other land managers) has tended to obscure the role of street-level bureaucrats responsible for extending and advising on schemes and the impact of their interpretive frameworks and communication practices on policy outcomes. This paper draws on interviews with extensionists and advisers in England and Finland in order to explore the different interpretations, which these actors bring to the implementation of agrienvironmental policy and to reflect on the implications of this for the way environmental advice is currently being offered to farmers within the agri-environmental network.