(c) Colin Wilkinson (rspb-images.com)
This is the fourth of a series of seven blog posts covering our asks in several environmental areas of the 25 Year Environment Plan. This fourth blog written by Alice Groom, Senior Policy Officer and lead on environmental land management, focus on how nature positive farming should be included in the 25 YEP.
In order to meet its Environment Act targets, the UK Government needs an effective and ambitious set of nature friendly farming and land management schemes based on the principle of public money for public goods.
The UK Government looked upon Brexit as an opportunity to transform farming policies, to create a resilient farming sector capable of producing good food and helping to heal the planet. Underpinning this was an awareness that farming and food security are reliant upon thriving wildlife, healthy soils, clean water, and a stable climate.
In the 25 Year Environment Plan, the UK Government set out its ambition to transform farming, including:
How much progress has been made?
Four years on and a large amount of work has been undertaken by Defra but progress on agricultural policy has been buffeted by political uncertainty, a pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the cost-of-living crisis.
DEFRA has:
Nonetheless, DEFRA has come under close scrutiny for leaving farmers in the dark on the full details of the three proposed environmental land management schemes, the environmental ambition of those schemes, for a failure to publish the National Pesticide Action plan, or to progress the commitment to reform regulation and enforcement.
One step forward, two steps back
Whilst Defra has struggled to make progress against the ambitions set out in the 25 YEP, whatever progress they have made is now at risk. Government is undertaking an informal, internal review of ELM and is refusing to rule out the retrograde step of reintroducing area-based payments.
Instead, the new ministerial team should be looking at how they can go further and faster to get the new environmental land management schemes up and running. This is critical to provide certainty to the farming sector and ensure they can unlock funding to support nature friendly farming practices, whether that’s providing habitats for wildlife, or using regenerative techniques to improve soil health.
The UK Government has restated its commitment to meeting the new Environment Act targets, including to halt the loss of species abundance by 2030. Nonetheless, they stand no chance of delivering against this commitment without an effective and ambitious set of nature friendly farming and land management schemes.
Public money for public goods
With the 25 Year Environment Plan refresh, this means UK Government should double down on the principle of public money for public goods, as this presents the best means of:
Government cannot hope to tackle the nature and climate crises, without an effective and ambitious set of environmental land management schemes, underpinned by effective regulations. Getting this right must sit at the heart of the 25 Year Environment Plan refresh.
The RSPB wants to see the UK Government get back on track with its stated manifesto commitment to recover the natural environment in a generation. This is critical, as our economy, health and prosperity are underpinned by nature.