In the biggest shakeup to farming in 60 years, the Government has announced that they will shift £2.4 billion of farming subsidies towards nature’s recovery, sustainable food production and tackling the climate crisis. Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust welcomes the focus of the schemes but urgently calls for greater ambition and clarity on the schemes that would see just 2.3% of land restored in 20 years.  

Leaving the EU provided Britain with a unique opportunity to change how it supported landowners to manage land for nature, as well as producing food in a sustainable way. The Trust is pleased to see some of this ambition realised as part of the Government’s new environmental land management schemes: the Local Nature Recovery Scheme and the Landscape Recovery scheme.  

The Local Nature Recovery scheme will focus on nature everywhere in "locally-targeted actions to make space for nature in the farmed landscape and the wider countryside, alongside food production” and is a more ambitious successor to the Countryside Stewardship scheme. 

The Landscape Recovery scheme is for much grander projects and will “support more radical changes to land-use change and habitat restoration” focusing on large-scale projects (500ha – 5,000ha) which restore biodiversity, improve water quality and help mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis.  

There is still key information that is missing though, and with just two years until this scheme is rolled out, we need clarity to ensure farmers and land managers can make the best decisions for their land. The Government must provide:  

• How local and national priorities will be determined, ranked, and allocated sufficient budget to achieve those target outcomes, including how these schemes sit alongside the Local Nature Recovery Strategies for each county. 

• Detail about how the schemes will work, including eligibility criteria and availability of advice, to enable farmers and land managers to plan in time for full rollout in 2024. 

Farming covers around 70% of the land in the UK, and the intensification and industrialisation of agriculture is one of the leading causes behind the catastrophic declines of wildlife in recent decades. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Across our two counties, the Trust has seen some farmers doing amazing things to help protect species, restore our Nature Recovery Network and tackle the climate crisis. We know that a wilder, more sustainable farming system is possible, one that works with nature, not against it. 

Debbie Tann, Chief Executive of Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust says: 

“We have long campaigned for subsidies to be moved towards supporting 'public goods' like nature and ecosystem restoration, and so we welcome this direction of travel. We do however need to see more ambition to deliver on the Government’s own target for 30% of land to be managed for nature by 2030. The schemes announced today will aim to restore 300,000 hectares of wildlife habitat by 2042, a mere 2.3% of land in 20 years. The UN has dubbed the 2020’s as the Decade of Ecosystem Restoration, stating that ' there has never been a more urgent need to revive damaged ecosystems than now.’ We have eight years left; we cannot wait decades to act. 

For years we have worked with pioneering farmers who are dedicated to prioritising nature’s recovery alongside food production. With proper Government support, we could see this become the norm across our degraded agricultural landscape. The government must use these new subsidies to fully realise farmers role as stewards of the land if we genuinely want to reverse nature’s decline by 2030.”