Early Oat Fields, Haregill Lodge Farm, Ellingstring, North Yorkshire - Paul Harris/2020VISION
Incentives for nature-friendly farmers
By supporting farmers to shift towards regenerative, nature-friendly methods, farming has huge potential to deliver a green rural renewal. With management of over 70% of UK land, farmers can be a significant part of the solution.
Kent Wildlife Trust are passionate about regenerative farming solutions. Our Farmer Cluster team are farmer-led initiatives which need more support and proper investment through a more ambitious ELMS, Landscape Recovery Scheme and NbS Green Finance.
Learn more about nature friendly farming in Kent
The destruction of nature and the impacts of climate change are the biggest threats to food security in the UK. Food production relies on healthy soils, clean water, and resilience to climate change. Restoring nature on farms will bring many benefits, not just for wildlife but also for farmers. Working with nature can increase farm profits and resilience, reduce costs, and maintain or even improve yields.
Many farmers and land managers have gone to great lengths to support wildlife without being adequately rewarded. The real terms value of the budget for environmental farming has already fallen by a third since 2010. Not investing properly means everyone loses.
To support a just transition for farmers, we’re calling on all political parties to...
© Simon Rawles
Increase the budget for wildlife-friendly farming
To reverse the decline of nature by 2030, and secure the UK’s long term food security, the budget to support wildlife-friendly farming should be increased to at least £4.4 billion a year. This will ensure the agricultural transition is fair to farmers and better for wildlife, while providing healthier and more affordable food for all members of society.
Buff-tailed bumblebee © Vaughn Matthews
Halve pesticide use
The catastrophic decline of insects is having a huge effect on the rest of the natural world. Insects are the canaries in the coal mine – their collapse is an alarm bell that must not be ignored. To save the future of insects – and all life that depends on them – the next UK Government must halve pesticide use by 2030 and maintain all bans on of bee-killing and human-health-harming neonicotinoids once and for all.
Credit: Paul Harris/2020VISION
Help farmers reduce emissions and adapt to climate change
The extreme heat, wildfires, and droughts in 2022 provided a taste of the reality to come. Farmers need much more support to adapt to climate change and to help meet the UK’s climate goals, as well as reducing their emissions. Adaptation and mitigation need to be embedded in farm payment schemes; farmers need better information about how farming with nature can increase their resilience; and a land use strategy is needed that considers how food production integrates with the other Nature-based Solutions society needs in response to climate change.
Paul Harris
Make Healthy, sustainable food valued throughout the supply chain
A transition to nature-friendly farming needs to be the right economic choice for farmers who are otherwise pushed to pursue intensive and damaging practices to suit supermarket demands. A better-regulated supply chain is needed to increase transparency and fair play, ensuring that farmers are fairly rewarded by the market. This must be matched by clear trade standards to safeguard UK farmers and the environment, ensuring that the domestic market does not compete with products produced to lower environmental and animal welfare standards.
