Fersiwn Gymraeg ar gael yma
In our last blog on the Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) for Wales, we outlined the five key actions we believed Welsh Government should undertake before the start of the scheme in 2026. Today’s announcement (25 November) by Huw Irranca-Davies, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change & Rural Affairs, makes some headway on these actions but we still have a long way to go until we have a scheme that will truly deliver for nature.
We all know that nature is in decline across Wales, with one in six species at risk of extinction nationally. We are facing a nature and climate emergency. We also know that over 80% of land in Wales is farmed – farmers therefore have a pivotal role to play in saving nature. Large numbers of these farmers are reliant on farming subsidies and so it’s vital Welsh Government gets the farming policy framework and subsidy payment structure right, so that our farmers can produce food sustainably, as well as help restore nature and tackle climate change.
Positive steps forward
We’re pleased to see that farmers entering the Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) will be paid for managing a minimum of 10% of their land as habitats for nature. We also welcome the decision to provide maintenance payments for Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), which are amongst our most important wildlife sites. These are important steps in helping farmers across Wales halt the loss of nature and start its recovery – something we’ve been calling for from the outset.
Our concerns
A recent independent, economic analysis, commissioned by RSPB Cymru, National Trust Cymru and Wildlife Trust Wales, found that £594 million is needed annually in Wales to fund environmental land management to meet nature restoration and climate targets. However, today’s announcement sheds no new light on the amount of funding allocated for the Sustainable Farming Scheme, nor how this funding will be split between different layers of the Scheme. This is critical as the amount of funding and how this is implemented across the different layers, will determine how effective the Scheme will be in ensuring Welsh Government delivers on its 2030 biodiversity targets. We’re concerned that there seems to be no clear plan on how the overall Scheme will contribute to these targets, this includes lack of detail around the effective management of SSSIs, and how it will help prevent the extinction of threatened species like the Curlew.
By around 2035, the Welsh food and farming sector is set to become Wales’ largest domestic emitter of greenhouse gases. One of the SFS’s key objectives is to help the sector meet climate change targets. To achieve this the Scheme must help Welsh agriculture to become more efficient and increase carbon storage through proven techniques. Woodland creation is one such proven technique and UK’s Climate Change Committee’s advice is that there is no credible route to achieving Net Zero without an increase in tree cover.
The decision to drop the 10% woodland cover target as part of the Scheme, despite it being beneficial to both farmers and nature, is therefore of great concern and presents Welsh Government and the agriculture sector with a real challenge in meeting climate targets. Having made this decision, it’s now vital the sector and the Welsh Government come up with a credible Net Zero plan for Welsh agriculture as a matter of urgency.
We remain a strong supporter of the SFS and its core principle of using public money to pay farmers to deliver public goods - environmental benefits for society. Looking forward, and considering the constraints on the public purse, agriculture will have to compete with other areas of government spending, such as health and education. Government will need strong justification for using taxpayers’ money to support Welsh farming, and we believe a Scheme that contributes substantively towards nature and climate goals provides that, as well as providing a more secure future for the agricultural sector.
The most recent UK Government’s Food Security Report concluded that ‘Climate change and biodiversity loss were among the biggest medium to long term risks to UK domestic food production, alongside other factors, including soil degradation and water quality’. Meeting domestic Net Zero targets will help tackle climate-related impacts on the farming sector including recent flooding and droughts.
Next Steps
We will continue working with Welsh Government and the rural sector over the coming months to ensure the Scheme is as effective as possible for farmers, for people and for nature – ensuring Welsh agriculture transitions to a sustainable future as efficiently and successfully as possible.
If you’d like all governments of the UK to prioritise and invest in more nature-friendly farming, please sign our petition here.