The conversations continue long after the conference has ended.
The 2nd Pan-European Conference on Green Nudges in Agriculture and Forestry, co-organised by the PRUDENT and ForestAgriGreenNudge (FAGN) projects at COPA-COGECA headquarters in Brussels, brought together policymakers, researchers, advisors, farmers, foresters, and practitioners from across Europe to explore a common question: how can behavioural insights help accelerate the transition towards more sustainable agricultural and forestry systems?
Throughout the conference, participants examined the growing role of behavioural approaches in policy design, discussing how green nudges can support the uptake of sustainable practices, improve participation in policy measures, and strengthen decision-making across the agricultural and forestry sectors.
The event opened with reflections on the role of behavioural science in future policy development. Representing PRUDENT, Simone Cerroni highlighted the project’s approach to testing behavioural interventions in real-world settings and generating evidence on what works, for whom, and under which conditions. As behavioural approaches continue to mature, discussions increasingly focused not on whether they belong in the policy toolbox, but on how they can be effectively integrated into future agricultural and forestry policies.
A recurring theme throughout the conference was the need to better understand the relative contribution of behavioural interventions compared to other policy instruments. Participants explored how green nudges can be distinguished from information campaigns, financial incentives, regulatory measures, and advisory support systems, while also considering how different approaches can be combined to achieve stronger outcomes. The role of behavioural insights in supporting AKIS, improving the uptake of digital tools, and helping farmers and foresters make informed decisions emerged as a central topic of debate.
The conference also expanded the discussion beyond public policy. One session explored an increasingly important question: what happens when businesses nudge other businesses? As sustainability requirements become more embedded in supply chains, behavioural techniques such as benchmarking, defaults, reminders, sustainability dashboards, and message framing are increasingly being used by private actors to influence decision-making. While these approaches may accelerate the adoption of sustainable practices, participants highlighted the need to better understand their effectiveness, transparency, legitimacy, and potential implications for equity.
A major highlight of the conference was the PRUDENT International Policy Workshop and Policy Hackathon, co-organised and moderated by Green & Digital. The session welcomed more than 90 participants from across Europe and created a unique space for collaborative policy design.
Working in thematic groups, participants translated behavioural evidence into practical policy recommendations for future agricultural and forestry policies. Discussions focused on four key areas: system-specific policy impacts and scaling, behavioural segmentation and adoption, AKIS and digital tools, and governance, ethics, and co-creation.
One of the strongest messages emerging from the workshop was the importance of creating policy environments that enable experimentation. Participants proposed the development of regulatory sandboxes within future CAP frameworks, allowing behavioural innovations to be tested without exposing farmers to financial risks. Moments of structural change, such as new CAP programming periods, were identified as particularly promising opportunities to introduce behavioural interventions.
The discussions also highlighted the value of behavioural segmentation. Participants agreed that farmers do not represent a single homogeneous group and that future agri-environmental measures should better reflect the diversity of motivations, needs, and decision-making patterns found across farming communities. Rather than relying on one-size-fits-all solutions, iterative co-creation processes involving stakeholders throughout policy development were seen as essential.
Another important insight concerned the role of advisory systems and knowledge exchange. Participants identified a structural barrier in the fact that farmers are often not compensated for participating in training and knowledge-sharing activities. Strengthening support for advisory services, training opportunities, and younger farmers acting as innovation ambassadors was viewed as a practical priority for future policy design.
The workshop also emphasised that even well-designed CAP measures can be strengthened through behavioural improvements. Participants argued that transparency, simplified communication, reduced administrative burden, and meaningful co-design processes can significantly improve policy implementation. Farmers are more likely to engage when they understand not only what they are being asked to do, but also why.
As Natassa from Green & Digital reflected after the event, the discussions confirmed that transparency, simplification, co-creation, and trusted advisory systems are not only important policy objectives, but also critical preconditions for effective behavioural policy. The workshop further identified concrete opportunities for embedding green nudges into the post-2027 Common Agricultural Policy, helping ensure that behavioural insights become a practical component of future policy design rather than a standalone experiment.
The conference demonstrated that behavioural approaches are increasingly moving from theory into practice. While important questions remain regarding effectiveness, implementation, and governance, there is growing recognition that behavioural insights can complement traditional policy instruments and help create more farmer-centred, adaptive, and effective policies.
For PRUDENT, the discussions and recommendations generated during the conference will directly inform upcoming policy briefs, white papers, and future research activities. More importantly, they reinforce a shared ambition across the European agricultural and forestry community: to develop policies that are not only evidence-based, but also designed around how people actually make decisions.
The path towards more sustainable agriculture and forestry is complex. Behavioural insights alone are not the solution. But as the conversations in Brussels demonstrated, they are becoming an increasingly valuable part of the journey.
