Farms can help tackle the biodiversity crisis

It is widely recognised we are in a climate emergency – but we are also in the midst of a biodiversity crisis. Nearly half of the 352 species of birds, mammals, butterflies and moths included in the 2019 State of Nature report have declined in abundance in Scotland since the 1970s.

And characteristic birds of Scottish farmland such as kestrel and lapwing have declined by 61% and 56% respectively, since the mid-1990s.

Reports from the recent farmer-led groups which advised the Scottish Government on how to tackle climate change vary in how much biodiversity management features in their recommendations.

In hill farming and crofting systems, the biodiversity imperative is primarily on retaining some form of grazing management on the hills and moorlands in order to maintain existing high nature conservation value habitats and wildlife.

In lowland arable and dairy systems, the biodiversity focus needs to be on redressing the habitat simplification that has occurred through loss of habitats and inappropriate management (including lack of management) of those fragments that remain.

Protecting the remaining habitat fragments must remain a priority in the short-term. But in the medium to long-term we also need to reconnect them through the re-establishment of a range of much more wildlife-friendly features on farmland.

At SRUC’S Kirkton & Auchtertyre research and demonstration farms near Crianlarich, we have been putting a focus on biodiversity management for the last 25 years. Twenty years ago we planted over 250 hectares with a wide range of native tree species. The ground vegetation benefited from the cessation of grazing and we now have dense carpets of wood anemone, heather and bilberry.

A range of characteristic woodland bird species are now using these areas on the farms. And we have also seen the return of black grouse to nest there. On the lower parts of the farms, we have used the Agriculture, Environment & Climate Scheme (and previous agrienvironment programmes) to fence off the margins of the burns running through our inbye fields.

We have shown it is possible to integrate biodiversity management successfully into a hill farm.

We just need more on farms across Scotland to help halt and redress the biodiversity crisis.

Professor Davy Mccracken is head of Integrated Land Management at Scotland’s Rural College.

WELCOME RETURN: Black grouse have come back to nest at demonstration farms near Crianlarich.