When it's a hamper created by many of the wildlife-friendly farmers we work with across the country to help demonstrate the importance of supporting farmland wildlife.
You may have seen our blog posts before Christmas highlighting the hamper we handed in to Defra, created by many of the wildlife-friendly farmers we work with across the country. What you didn’t see was that we actually produced two hampers and last week we presented the second one to the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, to thank him for the positive work he is doing for the environment and to keep in mind these wildlife-friendly farmers when important decisions are being made at the top levels of Government. In particular, in the next few months as the New Environmental Land Management Schemes (NELMS) are being designed and implemented, we wanted to make sure that the Government creates schemes that deliver the most for the natural environment.
We took the opportunity to remind him that by last year, 23,000 people had told us that they think the Government should invest in farming that creates a countryside richer in nature and that in England we’ve seen 47,258 messages to UK and EU governments calling for a better CAP.
The hamper went down well and we hope that it gives the Deputy Prime Minister a real idea of what can be achieved when farmers work with wildlife in mind and that the Government keeps these farmers in mind when making future decisions for the UK countryside.
Elsewhere, the Welsh Government’s wildlife-friendly farming scheme – Glastir - is the main tool for rewarding farmers who protect and maintain our countryside. In order to deliver, the scheme has to be designed to form part of a wider well-funded plan to tackle wildlife declines across Wales. Given Glastir’s key role, it’s also vital that farmers in the scheme are given the help, training and guidance they need to make it work for them, their wildlife and their farms too. Land management for nature often requires specialist knowledge and experience, and farmers must be able to draw on those best qualified to provide assistance.
The Welsh Government is currently consulting on the design for the Glastir scheme. We’ve been encouraging supporters in Wales to help farmland wildlife and the farmers looking after it by writing to the Welsh Government with their views on the proposals. If you’d like to get involved, you have until the 28th March, when the consultation closes. For more information see here.