EFG: Farmer-owned, farmer-led cooperative creates branch in North York Moors
A farmer-owned, farmer-led cooperative, which works across England to protect and enhance nature on a landscape scale for public benefit has established a North York Moors branch.
The launch of the Environmental Farmers Group (EFG) branch follows it being awarded a Farming in Protected Landscapes grant by the North York Moors National Park Authority to invest in member engagement, coordination and development including the establishment of a steering group.
Its three key environmental priorities are improving water quality, recovering biodiversity and reaching net-zero carbon farming by 2040.
Chaired by Robert Sword, a former director of Dawnay Estates, the group will provide structure, governance, and long-term strategy for the EFG branch, which covers the national patk and extends south through the Vale of Pickering and into Ryedale and neighbouring areas.
The new group offers farmers and land managers the mechanism to shape strategy, coordinate environmental projects, and ensure that the group develops in a way that reflects the area’s unique character and farming systems.
Mr Sword said: “There is a huge diversity of farming businesses in the region from small family hill farms to large-scale dairy and arable.
"Much of the North York Moors is biodiversity rich but we need to find ways to continue to fund the maintenance of these managed habitats post farm subsidies.
"The North York Moors EFG has been set up for the purpose of channelling a blend of public and private funding into farmer-led catchment scale conservation projects.
"Supporting small family farms through this collective approach is critical to preserving rural communities and the iconic landscape of the North York Moors that people travel from all over Britian to enjoy.”
Enthusiasm for the cooperative has been high from the outset. Local farmers managing more than 30,000 hectares of land combined have already expressed interest in joining.
Building on this momentum, the group is working towards a formal membership launch scheduled for April 2026.
During the development period, The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) is helping farmers to create pilot individual farm plans.
Led by GWCT advisor Jennie Stafford, these conservation plans explore the opportunities farmers are most interested in pursuing to support nature recovery.
Each plan will serve as a building block for a wider joined up conservation strategy for the region, aligning local aspirations with national environmental directives.
Ms Stafford said: “I’ve been working with individual farmers to look at where they might be able to employ mitigation measures and map less productive areas of their farms, which could be set aside for nature.
"Once we have these farm plans we can use computer modelling to join them up across landscapes to deliver coordinated large-scale environmental outcomes such as flood prevention, tree planting, increased biodiversity and carbon emissions reductions.”
A meeting for those interested in joining the North York Moors branch is planned for late February. For details, email [email protected].