Government announces major ‘rewilding’ plans

Farmers in England will be given public cash to rewild their land under ambitious new plans for largescale nature recovery projects announced by the government. These new environmental land management schemes will lead to large tracts of land being managed to conserve species, provide habitats for wildlife and restore health to rivers and streams.

The two new schemes unveiled by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, George Eustice, at the Oxford Farming Conference will play a pivotal role in the government’s objectives to halt the decline of species by 2030, to bring up to 60% of England’s agricultural soil under sustainable management by 2030, and to restore 300,000 hectares of wildlife habitat by 2042.

The Local Nature Recovery scheme is aimed at single or multiple farm-scale interventions to make more space for nature. This could fit in with the aspirations of farm-scale shooting activities that want to see improved habitat on farmlands such as shelter belts, cover crops and woodland management.

“Local Nature Recovery will replace the existing Countryside Stewardship scheme,” explained Environment Secretary Eustice. “Most holdings have a part of the farm that is perhaps not really suitable

for crop production, or less productive, or difficult to work. There is an opportunity to make those parts of the holding a special space for nature.”

The focus of the Landscape Recovery scheme, the second component of the new plans, is going to be about much more fundamental land-use change and is aimed at large-scale and long-term projects to provide landscape and ecosystem recovery. This could suit larger landowners working together, like shooting

estates, to conserve key species such as the curlew or to rewet peatland habitats.

“One of the lessons we’ve learned is that sometimes if you let go of the reins and allow nature to re-establish itself, you can see some quite significant changes in a relatively short time frame,” said Eustice. Rare fauna such as sand lizards, water voles and

curlews will be specifically encouraged, but the stated aim is to improve the status of about half of the most threatened species in England.

Bids are being invited for 15 pilot projects, each covering at least 500 hectares and up to 5,000 hectares, to a total of approximately 10,000 hectares, in the first two-year phase. These pilots could involve full rewilding or other forms of management that focus on species recovery and wildlife habitats.

Eustice added that the aim was for wildlife and nature protection to run alongside food production as a matter of course: “We want to see profitable farm businesses producing nutritious food and underpinning a growing rural economy, where nature is recovering and people have better access to it. 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.”

The British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC), which has been party to the development process of the schemes, welcomed the move and said that the government’s new schemes are an open door for land management practices undertaken for shooting and conservation.