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Abstract
This paper accounts fora comparative research on the application of agri-environmental measures in Germany, France and Portugal. The results we present here are extracted from a sociological inquiry conducted with about 700 farm-holders, in seven regions of these three above-mentioned European countries. We have questioned these farmers -had they signed or not any agreement- and all the various actors implied in the implementation of this European policy on the local as well as on the national scale. In this paper, we aim at explaining why applying these agri-environmental measures impulses a paradoxical dynamics coming to light thanks to the different scales taken into account by the analyses. If these measures come in addition to others already existing, the engagement of farmers is to be replaced in a social logic combining choices arising from their experience as producers, but also arising from their growing awareness of their citizenship.