<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/23/baby-owls-farming-policy-wildlife-environmental-land-management-england>
"Abby Allen has no problem with her neighbours peering over her luxuriant
hedges to see what she is up to on her farm.
For years she has been carrying out ad hoc experiments with wildlife and
farming techniques; in her lush Devon fields native cattle graze alongside
400-year-old hedgerows, with birds and butterflies enjoying the species-rich
pasture.
Under the environmental land management scheme (ELMS), introduced by the
government in 2021, those experiments were finally being funded. “We have a
neighbour who has always been more of an intensive farmer,” she says, but he is
now considering leaving fields unploughed to help the soil. “It genuinely is
having such a huge impact in changing people’s mindsets who traditionally would
never have thought about farming in this way.”
The new nature payments scheme followed the UK’s exit from the EU, when the
government decided to scrap the common agricultural payments scheme, which gave
a flat subsidy dependent on the number of acres a farmer managed. In its place
came ELMS, which pays farmers for things such as planting hedges, sowing
wildflowers for birds to feed on and leaving corners of their land wild for
nature.
But these schemes are now at threat of defunding, as the Labour government has
refused to commit to the £2.4bn a year spending pot put in place by the
previous Conservative government. With spending tight and the chancellor,
Rachel Reeves, cutting back on infrastructure and hinting at tax rises, a cut
to the ELMS scheme may be on her list.
However, government data released last week found the schemes were working to
tentatively bring nature back to England’s farmland. Butterflies, bees and bats
are among the wildlife being boosted by ELMS, with birds among the chief
beneficiaries, particularly ones that largely feed on invertebrates. An average
of 25% more breeding birds were found in areas utilising the eco-friendly
schemes."
Via
Fix the News:
https://fixthenews.com/ritual-technology/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
