A new report commissioned by The Widlife Trusts, RSPB and National Trust, highlights the scale of investment now needed to boost nature-friendly farming to ensure we meet UK climate and nature targets, writes Erin McDaid of the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust. The report — A Scale of Need — calls for an increase in investment in the nature-friendly farming budget to £5.9billion per annum across the UK.
This is the level deemed essential to deliver on legally binding nature and climate targets whilst strengthening the resilience of the UK farming industry. The current total agricultural budget stands at £3.5 billion — a figure unchanged in over a decade.
Currently around 20 to 25% is spent on agri-environment schemes designed to benefit nature. The figures in the report include, for the first time, analysis of different types of farm across the UK and variations in the costs of nature restoration in different sectors and across varying sizes of farm. Like many discussions, debate around issues linked to farming, food production and the need to farm in more nature-friendly ways can be polarised — but with climate change and nature loss posing the biggest threats to UK food security it is clear that attempts to pit investment in nature versus investment focused purely on production in a binary way are ill-informed and counterproductive.
The impact on food production as a result of increasingly severe and frequent flooding is clear for all to see. We are calling on the new UK Government, and the devolved governments, to meet these challenges head on through more ambitious funding models for nature-friendly farming. Long-term investment to both future proof British farming and support nature’s recovery would we a win-win.
Farmers taking steps to help nature recover and to tackle climate change must be rewarded — farmers shouldn’t only be rewarded for producing food. These issues are inextricably linked and require joined up solutions. Long-term restoration of habitats can help protect communities from flooding and protect precious soils, boosting production and helping keep our rivers clean.
As well as providing food for our souls, landscapes teeming with wildlife also help underpin sustainable food production. Nature-friendly farming embraces natural pest control; reduces the reliance on chemicals; limits pollution and boost wildlife — including beneficial species such as pollinators. These benefits are well proven and help sustain farm businesses.
To meet the challenges ahead, environmental schemes which support nature and climate must be delivered at a greatly increased scale — they can no longer been seen as supplementary or a luxury. With pressure on Government budgets and the new Government keen to demonstrate financial restraint — some might see a call for greater funding as unwise — but new investment is not only justified, it will also deliver value for money, delivering a return of three to one for every pound of public investment in nature restoration. Given that 70% of our landscape is farmed, farmers clearly have a crucial role to play in nature recovery.
Here in Nottinghamshire we are seeing growing interest in nature-friendly and regenerative farming techniques — from sowing flower-rich field margins and native tree planting to reduced use of chemical usage or steps to protect precious soils. However, we need to see a wholesale commitment to deliver “nature security” alongside “food security” across the industry Addressing the climate and biodiversity crisis is not separate from ensuring food security and a secure future for farm businesses they are two sides of the same coin and the quicker budgets are adjusted to enable them to be tackled together the better. To read the full report, visit wildlifetrusts.
org.
