The Local Nature Recovery Scheme and the Landscape Recovery Scheme

DEFRA has announced more detail about the proposed Local Nature Recovery Scheme and Landscape Recovery Scheme which, together with the Sustainable Farming Incentive (see our blog of 3rd December 2021), form the “agricultural transition” towards a future where public money funds more “public goods” in England.

In making the announcement at the Oxford Farming Conference today (6th January 2022), Defra Secretary of State George Eustice also announced an increase in payments under existing Countryside Stewardship Schemes of “around 30%”. That increase will be automatically applied to existing agreements and will also apply to new Countryside Stewardship agreements.

The Local Nature Recovery Scheme (LNRS) is intended to be the successor to Countryside Stewardship, offering set payments for prescribed actions. It will be available to individual farmers but there will also be incentives for collaboration with neighbours to deliver co-ordinated action over a larger area.

The LNRS will include payments for

• managing feeding, shelter and breeding areas for wildlife on arable farms

• managing, restoring and creating grassland habitats, wetland habitats, lowland heathland and coastal habitats

• managing and restoring upland and lowland peat and moorland

• supporting the recovery and reintroduction of particular wildlife species and tackling non-native invasive species

• managing and creating trees and woodlands

• nature-based solutions for water and the restoration of rivers, flood plains, streams and riparian habitats.

The scheme will be more flexible than its predecessor, with the duration of the agreement depending on the options chosen. Applications will be made through a single online portal for LNRS and SFI and farmers will be able to enter land into both schemes, provided that there is no double funding.

Further work on detailed design is to be undertaken in 2022 and pilots are due to start in 2023, with the full scheme ready to roll out in 2024.

The Landscape Recovery Scheme will aim to kickstart a small number of larger, bespoke projects covering 500 – 5,000ha each. These projects will restore nature at a landscape scale and are more likely to involve land use change away from agriculture.

Funding will be provided to support a two year detailed planning phase during which the project is expected to agree long term funding arrangements which might be solely reliant on private investment or combine private and public funds. It is not intended that Landscape Recovery projects will be fully Government funded beyond the development phase.

There will initially be two rounds of pilot schemes over the next two years. The first round will open shortly and applicants will have 16 weeks to submit applications; more detailed guidance will be published when the application window opens. The first round will aim to secure 15 projects in 2022, focussed on two themes:

• recovering and restoring England’s threatened native species

• restoring England’s streams and rivers.

As each project is likely to be unique, applications will be assessed against criteria for feasibility, cost and potential impact. There is no prescribed duration for agreements, but they are likely to be long term (Defra suggests 20 years plus) in order to achieve the desired outcomes.

Budget - The budget for agricultural support which has been carried forward from the old CAP schemes is to be allocated to the new schemes so that roughly 30% of the budget is available for each of the SFI, Local Nature Recovery and Landscape Recovery, with the remaining 10% spent on productivity schemes such as the Farming Investment Fund.

That distribution of funds tells a story about Defra’s ambition for the Landscape Recovery projects. The SFI will be open to all farmers and the Local Nature Recovery Scheme is intended to attract more than the 40,000 farmers who already participate in stewardship schemes, whereas the Landscape Recovery scheme will focus on a small number of large projects, funding them wholly for only the first two years and then expecting private finance to share the ongoing cost. In order to justify such expenditure of taxpayer funds, we can expect Landscape Recovery projects to have to demonstrate measurable improvements over a sustained period of time.

Tellus Natural Capital can advise farmers and landowners on the opportunities offered by the new schemes. Please contact Kate Russell at kate@tellusnatcap.com.

6th January 2022