3 minute read
Soil capital
Map of the 10 NCAs across Hampshire – from draft introductory information for consultation. © Environment Systems
A pioneering Environmental Land Management scheme is using National Character Area profiles as a basis for sustainable food production and business planning.
The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs has made a considerable investment into the farming community to engage them in the design of the new options under the Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme. Many of these options reposition food production on a more sustainable basis, with a strong emphasis given to soil health.
As we move closer to developing a Land Use Framework for England, it is essential that we focus on the health of our soils. Arguably the most important infrastructure we have, soils have been largely ignored for far too long by the planning system.
As landscape professionals, the elements of natural capital – air, water, soils, ecosystems, and micro-climate – are the tools of our trade. We have a special professional responsibility to ensure the health of these elements before even considering the policy or design process. Our mapping of National Character Areas (NCAs) assesses the diversity of natural capital assets and records the results of human intervention on our soils and ecosystems over thousands of years
The ELM Convenor project in Hampshire is one of five national pilots exploring a new system of governance of land management. The project made use of the NCA profiles as a way of mapping soils, micro-climate and ecosystems – to set the baseline for agenda-setting and business planning. Today we are only just beginning to realise the huge damage caused to natural capital by the way we have produced our food. This includes the pollution of our drinking water, excessive greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and the destruction of ecosystems. In our study, the value of food production was set at £110 million a year but the cost of that food production, when we included the cost of the unintended consequences, was £126 million for GHG emissions and drinking water purification alone.
In contrast, we were able to demonstrate through our research that it is perfectly possible to produce food sustainably, to reverse the drivers of climate change, and restore nature through the careful management of soils. The Cholderton Estate on the HampshireWiltshire border is one example of hundreds of farms that are actively involved in the current revolution within the farming industry. Cholderton sequesters 128 tonnes of carbon per hectare – double that of similar neighbouring, chalk soil-based farms. The soil fixes nitrogen from the atmosphere for enhanced fertility, and produces organic food from both arable and pasture, as well as clean water and air, in a landscape that teems with wildlife. We estimate the estate will be carbon neutral for the next 50 years.
Merrick Denton-Thompson FLI is Past President of the Landscape Institute and a Founding Trustee of Learning Through Landscapes. For more detail about the ELM Convenor pilot, visit lex.landscaperesearch.org/content/ farming-in-hampshire-national-pilot. For access to the reports, contact mhdt@btinternet.com.
