Farmers to be paid to restore natural habitats in push to rewild the countryside
FARMERS will be given funds to restore natural habitats and rewild Britain under new government schemes designed to replace EU subsidies.
George Eustice will this week unveil plans for two environmental land management schemes seen as crucial to halting the decline in biodiversity.
At the Oxford Farming Conference on Thursday, the Environment Secretary will set out details of a Local Nature Recovery scheme, which will pay farmers to create new habitats, plant trees, and restore peat and wetland areas.
Speaking ahead of the conference, Mr Eustice said: “Successful and profitable agricultural production is crucial to our food security.
“We are facing challenges on issues like biodiversity loss and climate change, so we must use our freedom from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy to establish a new system of rewards and incentives in agriculture.”
He will also unveil plans for a Landscape Recovery scheme, which will support larger projects designed to return British countryside to the wild.
The initiative will be open to individual landowners and farmers or groups engaging in land management projects spanning 500 to 5,000 hectares. Applications will open shortly, with 15 projects due to receive funding initially.
Ministers believe the reforms will play a major role in the Government’s drive to halt the decline in British species by 2030 and restore up to 300,000 hectares of habitat by the 2040s.
However, prominent figures in the farming industry have expressed concern that the changes place too great an emphasis on freeing up land for rewilding over the need to support domestic food production and self-sufficiency. There are also concerns that the reforms will disproportionately benefit wealthy landowners, rather than hundreds of tenants who account for 50 per cent of the nation’s farming.
The schemes come on top of the recently announced Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), which will pay farmers for using sustainable land management methods. It is being tested by
‘We must use our freedom from the EU to establish a new system of rewards and incentives in agriculture’
nearly 1,000 farmers and is due to be rolled out nationally from 2022.
Hailed as the biggest overhaul of farming and land management in half a century, the schemes will replace the basic payments system operated under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Brexiteers and some environmentalists see reforms of farming subsidies as a key prize of leaving the EU, having long argued that the CAP is skewed in favour of larger landowners and has failed to protect the environment.
Mr Eustice said: “Our new policies will support the choices that individual farmers make, with freedom to choose which elements work for them.
“I have already set out more detail on our new Sustainable Farming Incentive, with a focus on soil health. This week I will say more about Local Nature Recovery and making space for nature in the farmed landscape, and Landscape Recovery – which will pay landowners who want to produce environmental outcomes through land use change.”
Last night a senior figure in the farming industry said that the SFI scheme appeared to be far less generous than the basic payments scheme in terms of funding per hectare.
They also raised concerns that future incentives would overwhelmingly benefit large landowners rather than tenant farmers, many of whom are not permitted to plant trees or take any financial reward for growing them.
They also questioned the lack of safeguards to prevent foreign investors buying up agricultural land, in turn driving up prices and making it harder for domestic farmers to make a living.
‘There is no commitment from the Government to commit to maintaining and growing self-sufficiency’
“I think it’s disappointing that the Government continues to talk about land sparing. We believe it must be about land sharing – food production and the environment working together,” they added.
“There is still no commitment from the Government to commit to maintaining and growing self-sufficiency.”
The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs insisted that additional standards would be introduced, enabling farmers to receive more funding for the same piece of land.
A source added that the payment rates could also be revised, should ministers believe more support is required.