Indirect Effects of Eco-labelling of agricultural products on Natural Resources

The implementation of eco-labelling schemes for agricultural and food products mayrepresent an opportunity to enhance production technologies compatible with thesustainable economic approach. The paper presents an attempt to design a comprehensivemethodological framework in which the consumer behaviour change is the driving force for redirecting the market, the production, and the international trade. This approach focuses onthe specification of the most relevant variables necessary to implement a simplified, butcomprehensive analysis, from which it is possible to proceeding to a broad estimate of thechanges in terms of consumption patterns, revenue distribution, import and export, andnatural resources consumption.On a theoretical basis, the framework highlights that the most relevant conservation effecton natural resources, occurs when the eco-labelling schemes are enforced by two countries,under a market regime of free trade. On the contrary, if only one country adopts theschemes, then the effect is negligible.