We ended 2013 with our big ‘Vote for Nature’ push to ensure that wildlife-friendly farming received the maximum amount of money allowed from the Government’s overall farming budget, and I hope you’ve had a chance to read our Conservation Director Martin Harper’s blog summarising the decisions made in each UK country just before Christmas last year. Jenna Hegarty also told us a bit more about what those decisions mean for our wildlife on the Farming blog. If you follow either blog, you’ll be aware that we’ve moved into a new phase of decisions over wildlife-friendly farming, and the next seven years of farming more generally (such as how we can ensure that farming funding plays its part in making our countryside more resilient to heavy rainfall and reducing the severity and impact of floods).
I wanted to give you a bit of an update on what we’ve been up to and news on how you can continue to engage with the decisions being made in Wales.
Welsh Government are currently consulting on how their wildlife-friendly farming scheme will work. The current scheme had good intentions, but it just isn’t set up to deliver real change for wildlife, so this is a key opportunity to make sure it works properly for wildlife and farmers, and gives us a chance to stop, and even turn around, the on-going declines in our farmland wildlife.
If you live in Wales, find out more about the consultation and how to have your say on our We Love Wales blog. The government is asking for your contributions, so make sure you tell them what you think!
In England we sent the ‘Vote for Nature’ message to the Farming Minister George Eustice before Christmas in a hamper of wildlife-friendly food and drink produced by several of the farmers we work with across the country. What we didn’t say then was that we actually produced two hampers and last week we presented the second one to the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg. You can read more about the meeting on our farming blog.
In Northern Ireland we’re continuing to fight to close the funding gap for wildlife-friendly farming after last-minute political wrangling left us with a devastating and unexpected cut to the dedicated farming budget. We’ve joined forces with other leading environmental organisations to urge the Northern Ireland Executive to provide vital funding to support farmers and the wildlife on their land from elsewhere.
And what’s happening in Scotland, I hear you ask. Well, Jim Densham helpfully has updates for your on our Scottish Nature Notes blog, here and here.
I was reflecting on the last two and half years of our wildlife-friendly farming campaigning at the end of last week, and we’ve come a long way together. With your help we’ve fought off a fair few disasters and kept in some good things for our farmers and farmland wildlife. There is a little way to go yet as all the decisions aren’t quite over so, as usual, keep watching this space!