Comparing the local use of environmental policy instruments in Nordic and Baltic countries ‐ the issue of diffuse water pollution

International agreements for the North and Baltic Seas set the goal to reduce by 50 per cent the loading of nitrogen and phosphorus from 1987 to 1995. Not surprisingly, this goal has not been achieved. Different strategies to combat diffuse source water pollution from agriculture and forestry are analysed from the perspective of local implementation, using six case studies in the riparian countries to compare how different policy instruments are used in areas of high pollution. Available policy instruments include regulative, economic and communicative instruments, which are often perceived to be on a scale from ‘hard’ to ‘soft’. Even the regulations are, however, used softly in practice. Voluntary measures dominate. The most successful implementation occurs where economic incentives are significant. Most likely, the future will bear increasing political conflicts over which instruments are required to live up to the agreed policy goals.