One of the themes of the Oxford Farming Conference was 'more for less' (an interesting phrase which can mean an awful lot of things) or 'sustainable intensification' (an ill-defined but useful starting point).
The Secretary of State, Caroline Spelman, has been talking up the fact that HLS funding is increasing by 80% over the next few years, at this time of tight money, and that ELS funding is remaining the same. We welcome both of these things - they are crucial for the future recovery of farmland bird species. They also represent a vote of confidence in our farmers. Many farmers at Oxford thanked RSPB staff for the role we played, and the NFU and CLA did not, in arguing for the safe-guarding and expansion of these funds.
The RSPB also welcomes the fact that ELS is being reviewed. This scheme, which is basically the source of our great success at Hope Farm - where farmland birds have increased dramatically over the last decade in utter contrast to the surrounding countryside - could provide more for the same amount of money with just a little tweaking. Defra is looking at what tweaks are possible. This is very important - if done well then the recovery of farmland birds is almost guaranteed.
Let's hope that Defra do this well. Actually, we won't leave it to hope, we'll be pointing out what needs to be done.
It's just occurred to me - I heard rather little of the Campaign for the Farmed Environment at Oxford.
A love of the natural world demonstrates that a person is a cultured inhabitant of planet Earth.
That all sounds fairly positive Mark, as you say, I think it is very important that the RSPB has a strong input into the review of the ELS. Nevertheless I am always a little wary when politicians quote percentages as they rarely if ever say what the percentage IS OF, that is is, it an 80% increase over last year's budget or something different. So without defining what the base is, percentages quoted in isolation are rather meaningless. (Like sale price reductions really). Also I understand that some part of that increase, how much I don't know, is actually to bring remaining Environmental Stewardship schemes into HLS which is what was happening anyway. Nevertheless one must not grouse too much let's hope for positive results for the environment and wildlife from the OFC.
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