Farming has the greatest potential to restore nature in Wales – but only if farmers receive the right support.
The first quarter of 2024 saw the Welsh Government consulting on two major policies in parallel, each with a key role to play in tackling the environmental crises Wales is facing. The two consultations – on the Sustainable Farming Scheme and on a White Paper on environmental principles, governance and biodiversity targets – scarcely mentioned one another, yet in reality their prospects are inseparable.
The White Paper set out proposals for a Bill to close the post-Brexit governance gap by enshrining core environmental principles in Welsh law and establishing an independent environmental watchdog equivalent to England and Northern Ireland’s Office for Environmental Protection. The Bill will also set legally binding nature recovery targets, reflecting Wales’ commitments under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and the urgent need to address the severe and ongoing loss of our biodiversity. The First Minister’s Legislative Statement announcement on 9 July confirmed that the Environmental Principles and Biodiversity Bill will be brought forward in the coming year.
The Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) has been the subject of discussion and consultation since 2016. It has to deliver on the objectives of sustainable land management set out by the Agriculture (Wales) Act 2023, which include tackling climate change, restoring biodiversity and promoting sustainable food production. It is built on the principle of ‘public money for public goods’ – moving away from the subsidies of the Common Agricultural Policy to an approach that rewards farmers and other land managers for the wider environmental benefits they provide. Following the latest consultation its development period has been extended for another year and the scheme is now due to start in 2026.
Research has identified policy-driven change in management of agricultural land as the greatest driver of biodiversity loss over recent decades.
This additional year will ensure the design of the SFS takes full account of the promised new environmental bill, particularly key nature recovery targets. Research has identified policy-driven change in management of agricultural land as the greatest driver of biodiversity loss over recent decades. Perhaps this is not surprising since around 90% of Wales’ land is farmed – meaning that farming also has the greatest potential to drive biodiversity recovery.
We expect the new Bill to make Welsh Ministers accountable for the delivery of legally binding biodiversity targets and to strengthen the biodiversity duties of public authorities. But when it comes to influencing how private land is managed, the SFS, in conjunction with a robustly applied regulatory framework, represents the biggest opportunity to restore nature in Wales. Here we look at key targets from the Global Biodiversity Framework that we expect to be translated into Welsh legislation, and at how the SFS must help them to be realised.
Species recovery
The fortunes of species, an estimated 50,000 of which occur in Wales, are the building blocks of nature recovery. The GBF requires human-induced extinctions to be halted, extinction risk to be significantly reduced and species populations to be recovered to healthy and resilient levels by 2050. We expect Wales’ legislation to reflect these aims, including through a target to increase species abundance by 2030, putting it on a trajectory toward healthy and resilient levels. This means looking after common as well as rare and threatened species.
To boost common species and provide the foundation for nature’s recovery, the SFS must support farmers across Wales to manage a minimum of 10% of their enclosed land as the right mix of habitats which traditional family farms would have once provided in abundance. This mix includes flower and seed-rich habitats, well-managed hedgerows, scrub, trees, rough grass areas and ponds and streams. Focusing on enclosed land is important as this is where the most significant habitat losses have occurred. For example, we’ve lost over 90% of Wales’ flower-rich meadows.
To stop the extinction of threatened species, such as the Curlew, will often need farmers to work together to manage areas of habitat large enough to maintain populations. Other individuals and organisations will be needed to ensure success, for example, by providing specialist advice. To support this, the SFS will need to facilitate and adequately fund long-term collaborative working. The Welsh Government should be supporting pilot projects now, so we can learn how to do this well.
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Protecting the most important places for nature
The ’30 by 30 target’ is one of the better-known elements of the GBF. It requires at least 30% of land and seas to be effectively conserved and managed by 2030, through protected areas and ‘other effective area-based conservation measures’ (‘OECMs’). Wales’ delivery of this target was the subject of a Welsh Government ‘biodiversity deep dive’ in 2022.
Around 11% of Wales’ land (including freshwater areas) is currently covered by designation as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). SSSIs vary dramatically in size; some extend across multiple land holdings. Many are sites whose special habitats and species have been maintained by farming over decades. However, according to a 2020 baseline assessment by Natural Resources Wales, the condition of 49% of SSSI features is unknown, while of those whose condition has been assessed, 60% are in unfavourable condition.
The SFS, through its collaborative layer, should incentivise groups of farmers to work together to manage and restore habitats at scale, over the long term.
For Wales to have a chance of delivering 30 by 30, the SFS ‘offer’ to farmers whose land includes a SSSI (or part thereof) must be improved radically. The scheme must support farmers to manage and maintain their SSSIs from the outset, with management plans in place by the end of its first year. By 2030 we want to see those plans being delivered on all sites, and all should have a baseline condition assessment so that regular monitoring is able to track the impact of this management on site condition.
Securing the 30% area target will need more SSSIs to be designated as well as the identification of potential ‘OECMs’ that can contribute. Thinking is still developing about what this means for Wales, but it is likely that the best opportunities will come from large scale catchment management and restoration of carbon-rich habitats like peatland, which could also provide opportunities in environmental markets like carbon credits. The SFS, through its collaborative layer, should incentivise groups of farmers to work together to manage and restore habitats at scale, over the long term.
Restoring ecosystems and tackling the drivers of loss
The GBF also includes targets to restore degraded ecosystems, to tackle key drivers of biodiversity loss including invasive non-native species and pollution, and to enhance biodiversity and sustainability in agriculture. This reflects the well-understood benefits or services that healthy ecosystems provide, both to agriculture and to the whole of society: clean air and water, fertile soils, carbon sequestration, greater resilience to the more frequent floods and droughts resulting from climate change, and individual health and well-being (a recent UK poll found that 79% of people think nature is important for our well-being and economic prosperity). These wider societal benefits make a clear case for the SFS directing public money to support farmers to farm with, and for, nature. On top of this, farming with nature is often more profitable, being less reliant on expensive animal feeds and fertilizers.
While we hear endless bad news regarding public budgets, new legal targets are bound to shape investment choices by Government and others. The additional development year before the SFS gets off the ground must be used to focus on the inter-dependency of these two flagship policies, to the benefit of the farming community and all of Wales.
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