£10m project to protect rivers and landscapes
HUNDREDS of miles of rivers and the landscapes around them will be protected and restored with a £10m conservation project, the National Trust has said.
The charity will today unveil plans to boost habitats, wildlife and access for people along five rivers in Wales, Cumbria, Somerset, Norfolk and Cheshire, as it called on government to act on its promises to help the environment.
National Trust director-general Hilary McGrady pointed to a groundswell of support for action to protect the countryside as the UK leaves the EU.
She has welcomed recent pledges to deliver a farming policy that improves the environment as part of a “green Brexit”, but will warn Environment Secretary Michael Gove that actions speak louder than words.
Polling for the National Trust by Ipsos Mori revealed that 70% of the 2,248 people quizzed support an Environment Act to hold government to account.
Some 60% said it is very important that farmers receive money for looking after nature and 72% said they would definitely or probably be willing to pay more tax so the Government could ensure farmers do not pollute rivers or lakes.
Only 14% of England’s river catchments, and 37% of those in Wales, are in a good condition, as intensive farming, pressures from development and climate change take their toll, the National Trust said.
But the UK’s environmental decline “isn’t the fault of farmers”, Ms McGrady says.
“For decades they have been squeezed by the supermarkets on price and provided with public funding based on the amount of land they can farm rather than on producing positive outcomes for the environment and for people.
“We now want to see the Government commit to putting enough money in the pot for nature-friendly farming, not just for the next four years, but for the next 10 or 20.
“With the right support farmers can continue to innovate, becoming more profitable, sustainable and nature-friendly.
“A better future for the countryside, including our farmers, communities and a healthy and beautiful natural environment, is within our grasp.”
The conservation charity said it is testing new payment approaches for farmers to look after nature in north Wales and the Yorkshire Dales, and is creating 25,000 hectares of priority habitat by 2022.
The Riverlands project, with the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales, is part of those efforts, and will involve restoring habitat and creating better paths and walking routes to make rivers more accessible.
Work will help slow the flow of water and alleviate flooding in the Conwy Valley, the banks and habitats of the River Derwent will be restored in Cumbria, and chalk stream habitats will be improved in the Upper Bure in Norfolk.
Non-native species will be tackled in the Bollin, Cheshire, natural flood management methods in Porlock Vale streams will slow water run-off from Exmoor’s uplands, and elsewhere rivers will be reconnected with their floodplains.
The project aims to reverse declines across 750 square miles of land and more than 600 miles of river.
It will cost an estimated £10m, and the National Trust is hoping to raise £4m through fundraising appeals.
Ms McGrady said rivers are the lifeblood of landscapes but many are in desperate need of repair, and the Riverlands project aims to reverse the problems.
ENVIRONMENT Secretary Michael Gove has promised to support farmers in the future, as they warned of an “unprecedented” impact on food production due to drought.
The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) met officials in London yesterday to discuss “tinderbox” conditions that have reduced grass growth and “depleted” some yields.
The UK has seen its driest first half of summer since 1961, with last Thursday and Friday bringing the first rainfall in weeks, and farmers have warned the hot, dry conditions have hit harvests.
Scientists have said the heatwave gripping northern Europe was made twice as likely by climate change, and the UK faces a future of increasingly common episodes of extremely hot spells.
Farmers also face uncertainty over the future of the sector after Brexit, with changes to their subsidies and potential impacts of trade deals with the EU and countries such as the US.
Speaking outside the meeting, Mr Gove emphasised the importance of supporting future food production and taking steps “in order to ensure we can improve and enhance our resilience against the challenge of climate change”.
He also said: “We will make sure farmers have what they need in order to provide us with high-quality food and ensure their businesses survive. We want to be flexible and we don’t want to allow bureaucracy to get in the way of providing farmers with the support they deserve and the country needs.”
Before the “drought summit”, NFU president Minette Batters told the BBC recent weather conditions were “unprecedented”.
She said: “I’ve been farming for 25 years myself and we’ve never been feeding cattle at this time of the year, and we are at the moment, and that is the case right across the country.
“We haven’t had any appreciable rainfall since May, but if you have your office outside you are obviously at the mercy of the weather. This is unusual – we haven’t seen anything like this since 1976. It’s added a lot of costs because it comes on the back of a long, hard winter. I think that’s what has made this year so very unusual.”
Ms Batters said it is “too early” to say whether consumers will be hit by price hikes, but she warned that crop yields will be affected.
NFU leaders met officials from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, an array of rural agencies and figures from farming charities for the summit.
The Environment Agency said last month that it has responded to 44 “significant” environmental incidents, including moorland fires, algal blooms and fish rescues, since the end of June.
It comes after NFU Cymru raised its concerns about the dry weather during an emergency summit hosted by the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs at the Royal Welsh Show.
The union wrote to Lesley Griffiths AM to discuss the effect of the hot conditions on farms across Wales.
On July 25, she hosted a meeting at the NFU Cymru/NFU Mutual marquee in Llanelwedd, where NFU Cymru and industry colleagues were able to provide their views.
Following the meeting, NFU Cymru president John Davies said: “One of our key asks was for the Basic Payment Scheme payment to be brought forward to October for all farmers in Wales, or at the very least that every farmer should receive a part-payment.
“We have asked Welsh Government to consider whether EU agricultural crisis reserve funds could be drawn down to help the industry deal with the current drought. This fund is obtained through the annual top-slicing of CAP direct payments.
“A farmer’s top priority is the welfare of their livestock and for many the immediate priority is to ensure the continued supply of water to their livestock. We have asked that the extraction rules are made clear to farmers so that we make use of all sources of water as the situation worsens.
“There is no time to lose – each day lost has impacts further on in the year. We are pleased that Welsh Government agreed to our request to hold this summit today and they have committed to coming back to us with a progress update in the next few days.”