Several members of the CCRI have been involved in a partnership involving 45 experts from nine research organisations who have reviewed and rated the effects of different land management actions in a series of reports recently published by the UK Government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
The evidence produced during the research is being used to inform new environmental land management (ELM) schemes in England, which fund farmers and land managers to deliver climate and environmental benefits alongside food production, replacing the payments previously made under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
The three ELM schemes are the Sustainable Farming Incentive, Countryside Stewardship and Landscape Recovery. All three are voluntary, and farmers can choose actions that suit their specific setting. The ten reports are an important element of the broad evidence base Defra have built to support the development and roll out of these schemes ensuring they take an evidence-based approach.
The work involved assessing more than 700 land-management actions for their impact on cultural ecosystem services – including recreation, geodiversity, providing access to green space and supporting our cultural heritage.
The work was led by the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and more about the work and its findings can be found here.
Chris Short led the CCRI input into the project, with contributions from Matt Reed, Janet Dwyer, Julie Urquhart, Alice Goodenough, Hannah Chiswell and Peter Gaskell.
All versions of the associated reports can be located on the Defra website. The report for which CCRI was responsible for was QEIA 3: 7 Cultural services.
