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Jim Densham, Senior Land Use Policy Officer at RSPB Scotland, blogs about the Scotland Rural Development Programme. 

Boosting the budget for wildlife-friendly farming


‘More money’ is a demand that politicians hear all the time and must get pretty fed up with. But money does matter and some investments have the potential to bear fruit for many years to come. The next Scotland Rural Development Programme (SRDP) is one such long-term investment.

In my previous blog I explained that despite the SRDP budget being £190m per year it’s really not that much considering the size of Scotland and all the demands placed on it. It has been estimated that Scotland needs £444m each year to meet environmental objectives alone, never mind finding more money for other rural development needs.

So how can the SRDP budget be increased?

Option 1 – Top-up from CAP* subsidies. Scotland’s farmers take a share of £580m per year in subsidy – equivalent to approx £250 from each Scottish household – with few environmental conditions attached. In response to the recent flooding crisis, some commentators, like George Monbiot, have been questioning the benefits Society receives in return for the huge subsidies that many landowners receive from taxpayers. The argument is that subsidies should pay for land management which, protects soils, stores floodwater and creates homes for wildlife, etc... not just producing food. We want a countryside that’s enjoyable to visit, provides us with services and is fit for nature right? That’s certainly RSPB policy. But I digress.

Before Christmas we campaigned for more funds to be swapped from the subsidy budget to the SRDP budget to reward wildlife-friendly farming. Richard Lochhead the Cabinet Secretary could have transferred 15% of it but chose £9.5% and thereby starved the SRDP of an extra £200m. We were obviously disappointed. There is an opportunity in 2018 to change this decision but for the short term, it’s 9.5% and not enough.

Option 2 – Top-up with other Government money. A proportion of the SRDP budget already comes from the wider Government budget rather than CAP funds but this option would mean finding money from elsewhere.  What about the massive transport budget?  The 80miles of A9 to be upgraded has a budget of £3bn. One mile less of that could provide £37.5m for wildlife-friendly farming!

Option 3 – Rebalance the SRDP budget. For us, the Agri-Environment-Climate (AEC) scheme within the SRDP is the key scheme as it pays farmers and nature reserve managers to help nature. It has a budget of £48m per year (25% of the total) but we calculate it needs at the very least £60m per year. The AEC scheme supports land managers to create wet areas for lapwing, mow grass in a corncrake-friendly way and plant seed crops for corn buntings....and much more. This scheme can have many real benefits. Smaller SRDP schemes to advise farmers, and help them work together can increase the effectiveness of the AEC scheme, and Forestry Grants are also good in part for wildlife too.

So what gives (that phrase is becoming a common theme in these blogs)? The biggest share of the SRDP funding pot goes to the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (LFASS). LFASS is a bit like a top-up subsidy for hill farmers but it is poorly targeted, has little environmental benefit and is poor value for money. Reducing its budget and targeting it better to the most vulnerable farmers is a real option and would allow a transfer to the AEC scheme which provides better value for money and value for the environment.

In reality, Option 3 is the most plausible option now. But in case we can’t persuade Ministers, we need to ensure that the limited funding works as hard as it can for wildlife-friendly farming. More next time.