I spend a lot of my time talking to farmers, landowners and crofters – and sometimes rather more time in rooms with their officials and representatives than seems healthy!
The days when the first question was ‘what are you here for’ is long gone. It has been one of my aims as Scottish Director to make the RSPB a credible rural voice. Of course RSPB Scotland is a farmer, indeed quite a big farmer. Much of our land has to be farmed in order for it to be good for birds and other wildlife. In some places we work with graziers to do this. Or alternatively we farm ourselves-in hand. Our cattle on Islay, for example, at our Loch Gruinart reserve are a case in point. Eoin Brown our stock manager is an Ileach through and through, and his skills mean we have thousands of geese in winter and hundreds of pairs of lapwings breeding in summer. He also provides high quality calves, with buyers coming from across Scotland and England for the sale. It’s a great place where extensive farming makes a lasting contribution.
I have a vision for agriculture in Scotland. I want a vibrant, competitive and confident industry that produces high quality food, but which also plays a key role in protecting and enhancing our valued wildlife and landscapes – for their intrinsic and economic value.
Is all rosy? No of course its not. I still see farmers draining and re-seeding the last wet patches which lapwings or other birds need. I also see farmers forced to clear scrub so as not to lose their single farm payment (an EU subsidy) – and many RSPB members have complained to me about this happening too. At the other extreme the loss of cattle from some areas means the flowers, insects and birds don’t have the right type of tussocky ground to thrive in.
The number of Committee meetings to discuss farming looks likely to increase as Scotland begins to work up its ideas for the reform of the CAP – this is the huge policy that governs agriculture from the Mediterranean almost to the Arctic circle in Sweden and Finland. Farmers want the freedom to farm and to sustain their ‘entitlements’ as CAP subsidies are called. I want to keep money in rural Scotland too, and I certainly want farmers who protect and enhance the Environment to be rewarded for doing so.
I am worried about our producers on the Islands and in the hills and high glens, because they often farm in ways which do look after wildlife very well. But they get the least subsidy and support of all. It doesn’t feel right. They are not always well represented in the Committee rooms either. The intensive arable and grassland farms do much better, even though they have advantages of scale and being close to markets. And this is where a lot of our wildlife is declining of course (see UK birds report here).
I will be challenging the Scottish Government to commit more funds to schemes which reward farmers for caring for wildlife and the countryside. Scotland currently underperforms some of this for historical reasons, but its been Ministers choices too!
Tell Richard Lochhead your views here: Richard.lochhead.msp@scottish.parliament.uk.
I also want better regulations, that challenge farmers to think more about their role as stewards of wildlife – and encourage them to do better. This is called cross compliance –and basically is a set of rules to follow if you want public subsidy. Our wader initiative, which is entirely voluntary, in partnership with the NFUS and SAC amongst others, aims to address declines in breeding lapwing, curlew, and redshank on farms and crofts. It could do with more willing participants for starters (See here) given the loss these species are suffering in many parts of Scotland. I challenge farmers to show they care in a tangible way by doing something practical to help.
Agriculture, food and the Environment are all inextricably linked. Scotland has all in abundance – but we must invest in the Environment if our children are going to see and hear skylarks singing or curlews with their evocative bubbling call in our farmed countryside. What do you think?
Photos: Andy Hay
nice