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New plans will reward farmers for protecting the environment

The government has unveiled the next stages of its plan to reward farmers and landowners for actions that benefit the environment. 

The Local Nature Recovery scheme will pay farmers for locally-targeted actions which make space for nature in the farmed landscape and countryside such as creating wildlife habitat, planting trees, or restoring peat and wetland areas. 

It will also support more radical changes and habitat restoration such as establishing new nature reserves, restoring floodplains or creating woodlands and wetlands. 

Speaking at the Oxford Farming Conference today, Environment Secretary George Eustice will announce that applications will shortly open for the first wave of Landscape Recovery projects.

Up to 15 projects will be selected in this first wave, focusing on two themes – recovering England’s threatened native species and restoring England’s rivers and streams.

green tractor farming in field

George Eustice said: ‘We want to see profitable farming businesses producing nutritious food, underpinning a growing rural economy, where nature is recovering and people have better access to it.

‘Through our new schemes, we are going to work with farmers and land managers to halt the decline in species, reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, increase woodland, improve water and air quality and create more space for nature.

‘We are building these schemes together, and we are already working with over 3,000 farmers across the sector to test and trial our future approach. Farmers will be able to choose which scheme or combination of schemes works best for their business, and we will support them to do so.’

However, the Wildlife Trusts, National Trust, and RSPB warn that key information is still missing less than two years until the scheme is meant to be fully rolled out. They argue the documents published today fail to provide:

  • Sufficient detail about how the schemes will work, including eligibility criteria, making it difficult for farmers to plan in time for full rollout in 2024.
  • Information about how Government will ensure these schemes achieve target outcomes.
  • How local and national priorities will be determined, ranked, and allocated sufficient budget to achieve those target outcomes
  • Information about advice available to farmers, where guidance can be accessed, and who it will be provided by.

Craig Bennett, Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trusts, said: ‘The real test of this agricultural transition is not so much whether it is a little bit better or moderately better than what came before, but whether it will be enough to deliver on the Government’s targets to get 30% of land managed for nature by 2030, to halt the loss of wild species abundance by 2030, to deliver on the Government’s own 25-year environment plan, and to make sure farmers are supported so that they help solve rather than worsen the nature and climate crises. Anything less than that means that this historic opportunity will have been wasted.

‘While we’re hearing the right noises from Government, the devil will be in the detail and the detail is still not published nearly six years after the EU referendum.’

Pippa Neill
Reporter.

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