In January 2015 the new Scotland Rural Development Programme (SRDP) opened for business. Well... sort of! The programme has numerous schemes and these are opening on a rolling basis – so far we have seen the launch of for example, the Crofting Agricultural Grant Scheme, the Small Farms Grant Scheme and the New Entrants Grants (although no payments will be made until the new programme has actually been approved by Europe). We don’t expect to see a fully operational programme until the middle of 2016 when we hope the advisory service will be up and running, but there is plenty to be looking at in the meantime.
Not least of course from our perspective is the new Agri-Environment-Climate scheme (snappy!), which should have launched by the time this blog is released! It will come as some relief to a lot of people to see that the old ‘uber’ scheme, Rural Priorities, has in effect been broken down into its constituent parts – this scheme being one of those parts and the new Forestry Grants Scheme being the main other (although there are more). We think this is a mixed blessing, and it actually goes in the opposite direction in terms of integrating land management decisions as most other UK countries at this time. But at the very least it makes for clearer and easier to follow web pages and scheme information.
Image 1: Species such as lapwing require integrated decision-making over land management. (Andy Hay: rspb-images.com)
The new Agri-Environment-Climate (AEC) scheme combines amended versions of options that used to be in the Rural Priorities and Land Managers Options schemes, and some welcome new ones as well, covering a range of objectives including biodiversity, water quality and organics. There is something in the scheme for every land manager so we would encourage you to have a look - here. It is open to all but some of the options are spatially targeted so you are given direction in terms of which options will deliver real benefits on your holding. It is a competitive application process, with a points threshold set at the beginning of the programme over which all applications must get to be successful.
I’d struggle to say AEC is a ‘higher level’ scheme - even though it is the main means of delivering on designated sites, simply because of the range of things it is trying to deliver and the very limited budget it has to do this. But it is not an entry level scheme either and we are hopeful we’ll see some real environmental benefit from the new assessment process, that has a strong emphasis on ensuring land managers understand the plan they are seeking funding for and has added new elements such as the Farm Environment Assessment. We hope that this process will drive up the quality of applications (from an environmental benefit perspective) without being too cumbersome for land managers. The financial support available for the production of the Farm Environment Assessment at the moment will help in this regard but it is too early to really tell - the proof will be in the pudding.
Image 2: 'Creation of wader scrapes’ is a new capital item within the AEC scheme and one which will help the scheme deliver real benefits for our rapidly declining wader populations. (RSPB Scotland)
Given that we have been almost two years now in Scotland without a scheme to apply to, with Rural Priorities running out of funds towards the end of the last programme, RSPB Scotland is very excited by the launch of the AEC scheme. We are already talking to and working with land managers across Scotland keen to get in and deliver benefits for priority species such as Corn Bunting, Lapwing, Corncrake and Black Grouse.
Image 3: The new programme will provide valuable support to Scotland’s crofters, whose land management helps maintain the rich biodiversity of Scotland’s highlands and islands (in this photo habitat for Choughs). (Andy Hay: rspb-images.com)
The other element of the programme that we look forward to is the new Environmental Co-operation Action Fund (also snappy!). This fund is due to open to applications sometime in 2015 and will provide valuable support for the establishment and delivery of landscape scale conservation projects. So far as we currently know this fund will be open to everyone, allowing for project ideas from land managers and NGOs alike. The fund will be primarily for facilitation costs but this could be a range of activities including but not limited to talking to land managers, reconciling interests and producing strategic plans. We watch this space carefully and hope to see what the fund is focusing on in terms of its objectives some time soon.
Importantly also, there will be a new advisory services in place to support this new programme, hopefully up and running by the middle of 2016. It is not yet clear what this service will look like but we remain hopeful there will be a one-to-one dedicated agri-environment and biodiversity element to it.
If you would like to talk to the RSPB about an application to the AEC scheme or any other elements of the programme for biodiversity purposes, then please do contact a local adviser or our Scottish Headquarters and speak to our advisory manager – Chris Bailey: chris.bailey@rspb.org.uk
By Amy Corrigan, Agriculture and Rural Development Policy Officer