Jim Densham, Senior Land Use Policy Officer (Climate) at RSPB Scotland, is blogging about the Scotland Rural Development Programme and what it means for farmers, wildlife and nature conservation.
£1.3bn for the countryside – how would you spend it?
£1.3 billion - that’s a lot of cash. It’s the amount that the Scottish Government has to spend on Scotland’s rural areas over the next 7 years in its Scotland Rural Development Programme (SRDP). At approximately £190m per year it’s still a huge amount. Or is it?
This time last year, I ordered 3 tonnes of topsoil and soil conditioner to grow some veggies in my garden. When it came off the lorry it seemed like a huge amount – had I over-ordered? But when it was spread out it didn’t go nearly as far as I thought it might.
It’s similar with £190m. If it was spread out evenly across Scotland it would pay £25 per hectare (about one and half football pitches). That’s not much money to help farmers and crofters look after their land, especially when you consider what the money is supposed to achieve. The Programme aims to support wildlife, halt climate change, protect our heritage, increase farm competitiveness, reduce rural poverty, and so on and so on... You can’t do all that at £25 per hectare.
So what gives? How can you ensure best value for money – public money – because it comes from our taxes. Well there are a number of things that can be done:
We recently said this to the Government in our response to its consultation on the design of the SRDP for 2014-2020. From our research, knowledge of Scotland’s birds and wildlife, and our work with farmers, we are well placed to help Government design a scheme which supports wildlife-friendly rural livelihoods. We are working right now to help Government develop the SRDP and make sure the £1.3bn is spent as effectively as it can be.
As we work on some of the issues above with Government, I’ll keep blogging about it and outlining how spending the money on the right things and in the right way can help our wonderful wildlife.