Farmers to be paid to save Dartmoor ponies
THREATENED Dartmoor “hillies” and other native ponies could be saved from extinction by post-brexit plans to pay farmers and landowners to keep them.
Hill ponies have been part of the Dartmoor landscape since the Bronze Age, but numbers have dwindled in recent years, from an estimated 6,500 in the Nineties to just 1,000 now.
Conservationists blame EU farming subsidies focused on production, which have forced out the ponies in favour of sheep and cattle.
They now hope that post-brexit agriculture legislation, which arrives in the Commons on Monday, could save the ponies from extinction. The replacement to the much-maligned EU Common Agricultural Policy is intended to reward farmers and landowners for producing environmental goods that have benefits for biodiversity, clean air and the fight against climate change.
Growing research suggests Dartmoor hill ponies have a vital role as hardy conservation grazers on the moor. The ponies protect local heathland by grazing on the pervasive Molinia grass, while their hoof prints also encourage seeds to sprout. Restoring the degraded heathland could be key to preserving other threatened species.
“You need to have mixtures of grazers together. That’s what happens in natural ecosystems; just think of the Serengeti,” said Mariecia Fraser, an uplands specialist at Aberystwyth University.
Environmentalists hope the legislation will correct the consequences of the EU’S subsidy regime, which often sacrificed environmental protection for food production. The Government has faced criticism for delays in outlining exactly how farmers can get paid.