In view of the critical position of taxpayers to the use of state-run capital and taking into account the short monetary budgets in the federal states these measures are put to test. Agroenvironmental measures should be offered custom-made for certain landscapes or regions in the years to come. Taking into consideration these demands, the question, which economic efficiency and ecological effectiveness is obtained by different approaches to remuneration for agro-environmental measures, was posed. In a paired comparison of different methods of evaluation the SWOT-analysis proved to be the most appropriate method to the problem of the paper. In this analysis activity-oriented, measure-oriented, result-oriented as well as market-oriented approaches to remuneration were included. With the help of a prepared catalogue of criteria, that allows to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches to remuneration for the varying areas of application and selected subjects of protection, the approaches to remuneration were compared with each other and strengths-weaknesses-profiles were derived. Therefore the present paper analysed the previous agro-environmental measures in the three southern new federal states of Germany (Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia) and evaluated their efficiency as well in consideration of the amount of subsidies, of the regard of losses of income as in consideration of the particular expenses for activities. Because the market-oriented approach to remuneration, that was frequently discussed as an option recently, was not existent in a well-elaborated form like the other approaches to remuneration indeed, first of all a theoretic substantiation for this approach as well as - based on this substantiation - the development of a "virtual" market-oriented approach to remuneration of environmental measures for the cultivation of grassland, compatible to environmental protection and nature conservation, was carried out. There is not the only best solution for the remuneration of environmental measures. As activityoriented approaches to remuneration of environmental measures in agriculture are stronger geared to the abiotic sector also in future, result- or market-oriented approaches to remuneration are rather oriented to the improvement of the biotic environment. |