As farmers and landowners plan for the wider rollout of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) this year, the Government have released further details on the two remaining aspects of the Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS).
Local Nature Recovery
Local Nature Recovery (LNR) will eventually replace Countryside Stewardship albeit on a grander scale. Whilst agreements may be entered into by an individual, collaborative efforts between farmers are encouraged.
As we have seen with the SFI, many actions under an LNR agreement will create ‘environmental credits’ with a value in their own right. Whether it is carbon sequestered by trees, peatland, or soil management there is a growing market for carbon credits. Crucially the Government will allow credits produced under schemes like the SFI to be sold in the open market, providing added incentive for the land manager to get involved.
There are early indicators of what actions will involve including the management, restoration and creation of habitats including species rich grassland, wetlands, coastal habitats and lowland heathland. Arable farms may manage the feeding, shelter, and breeding areas for wildlife whilst farms with rivers and streams may be paid to restore them and their riparian habitats. The most interesting and exciting aspect however, in what the Government is planning is the possibility that further income may be gained by selling biodiversity net gains from the same land. Most of these actions will improve biodiversity aligning with the Environment Act’s requirements for developers to produce 10% biodiversity net gain on their developments (building houses or industrial sites etc) which will be mandatory from 2023. Whilst care should be taken, as scheme rules are yet to be released, an LNR could potentially run alongside a Biodiversity Net Gain agreement with a developer to produce these required biodiversity units and provide additional revenue.
• First LNR agreements from 2023 (limited number).
• Wider rollout 2024.
• Individual or collaborative agreements.
• Length of agreement dependent on the activities being undertaken.
• Flexibility to add more options or land into agreement over time.
Interestingly, land may be entered into both SFI and LNR as long as the same actions are not being paid for twice. In this way agreements can be combined to best suit each individual farm’s capability. DEFRA have stated that they are working on making the scheme accessible to tenants and those farming common land, but disappointingly are short on details. The scheme rules, options and payment rates will be released over the course of the year.
Landscape Recovery
This final tier of ELMS is similar to LNR but on an even greater scale. Largescale projects will be long term and aim to restore ecosystems through land use change and create beneficial environmental and climate outcomes. The first projects will focus on recovering priority habitats and restoring streams and rivers with 10 pilot projects expected to cover around 20,000 ha.
• Applications for LR pilot projects will be in 2 rounds over the next 2 years.
• Groups or individuals with at least 500 ha may submit bids for development funding.
• All land types are eligible.
• Land may be part of existing agri-environment schemes but no double payment for the same outcomes is allowed.
• 2-year project development phase for each agreement before long term funding agreed.
These announcements reaffirm DEFRA’s intention that participants are able to combine public and private sector revenue to help meet the Government’s carbon neutral and environmental pledges. It appears these schemes will be designed to complement the environmental credit market, whether carbon credits, biodiversity units or nitrate and phosphate offsets. For more detail on how to trade environmental credits download our recently published ebook here.
If any of your land is suitable for biodiversity net gain, phosphate or nitrate offsets, contact us for a free initial consultation in order to be on our register of sites available for conservation agreements with developers. You will be part of our UK-wide registers which include BPS entitlements, carbon and water abstraction licences to take advantage of the surging interest in environmental credits and make use of our 35 years of experience in trading.