Ecological Indicators 1 (2001) 11–20 Environmental indices and the politics of the Conservation Reserve Program Marc O. Ribaudo a,∗ , Dana L. Hoag b , Mark E. Smith c , Ralph Heimlich d a Economic Research Service, 1800 M Street NW, Room 4004, Washington, DC 20036-5831, USA b Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA c Office of Budget and Program Analysis, US Department of Agriculture, 12th and Jefferson Drive SW, Washington, DC 20250, USA d Economic Research Service, 1800 M Street NW, Room 4190, Washington, DC 20036-5831, USA Accepted 7 March 2001 Abstract Environmental indicators can be used to target public programs to provide a variety of benefits. Social scientists, physical scientists, and politicians have roles in developing indicators that reflect the demands of diverse interest groups. We review the US Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), the largest agricultural conservation program the United States, to determine how a set of environmental indicators were developed and used, and assess results of their application. The use of such indicators has helped the CRP increase and broaden the program’s environmental benefits beyond erosion reduction, which was the primary focus of early program efforts, to meet other demands. This case study provides an example about how integration and assessment for the purpose of managing public resources requires more than natural science disciplines. Social science can help explain how public values influence what information is collected and how it is interpreted. Examples are given to show how the indices used for the CRP integrated science, politics and social values. In the end, the environmental benefits index (EBI) used to target US$ 20 billion of CRP funds reflects compromises made between science and policy considerations. It is our intention that studying this index will yield ideas and understanding from the natural science community that develops ecosystem indices about how to better plug in to programs in the future. © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Environmental index; Indices; Conservation Reserve Program 1. Introduction Many nations devote resources to develop ecolog- ical indicators to ensure that their natural resources remain vital and “healthy”. Naturally, the first step is to develop science-based indicators and indices that accurately represent ecosystems. The greatest chal- lenge and need for scientific research likely lies in the ∗ Corresponding author. Fax: +1-202-694-5776. E-mail address: mribaudo@ers.usda.gov (M.O. Ribaudo). study of how to accurately represent complex ecosys- tem functions. However, this vision of ecological in- dicators falls short of the goals listed in the sub-title of this new journal: “integrating, monitoring, assess- ment and management”. The Environmental Monitor- ing and Assessment Program (EMAP) in the United States, for example, paid heed to calls for details where natural sciences were concerned, but the program’s early success was curtailed because EMAP did not adequately address multiple warnings by scientific re- view panels to be more policy relevant (Hyatt and 1470-160X/01/$ – see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII:S1470-160X(01)00002-4