Defra green scheme investment will benefit poorest farmers the most

“Farmers in the Higher Level Stewardship scheme are amongst those doing the most for climate and nature. They manage some of our most iconic but economically challenging landscapes, from Dartmoor to the Lake District, and the extra cash flow from these green schemes will benefit some of our poorest farmers the most [2].

“These farmers are often the early adopters, planting the trees, restoring the bogs and creating the wetlands that have and will restore nature, absorb carbon and slow the flow of flood waters, preventing your front room from flooding.

“With the recent land use framework giving us a clear view of the scale of change we need to see, and the advice from Climate Change Committee tomorrow likely to echo this, we will need much more investment into these sorts of schemes to protect British nature, and our villages and towns from flooding. A small investment now to retain the confidence of these green pioneers will pay dividends in the future.”

The Higher Level Stewardship scheme is the legacy ‘higher tier’ scheme in England, and has around 6000 farmers in it. The last agreement opened in 2014, and many have been extended in order to maintain the environmental benefits of the scheme during the current transition towards new green farming schemes.