Cuts 'willput our rural ecologyat risk'

Mark Casci Agricultural Correspondent

RURAL businesses, farmers and the environment will all suffer if the Government slashes funding for the countryside, it is claimed.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has expressed concerns about the future of support payments given to farmers who work to promote ecology and wildlife.

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The conservation body said today that cuts to the Higher Level Stewardship scheme, which pays farmers and other land managers to deliver benefits for the environment, would take a financial, environmental and ecological toll on Yorkshire’s countryside.

It says Yorkshire landowners and tenants who are signed up to HLS play a vital role in supporting key species and habitats for wildlife, as well as making the countryside attractive and accessible for the public.

The RSPB is calling on the public to express its concerns by signing an online petition to Chancellor George Osborne.

To increase pressure on the Government the RSPB is taking to the doorsteps of Ministers this week in the run-up to the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review in October.

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Campaigners will be out in the constituencies of Mr Osborne, as well as Oliver Letwin and Environment secretary Caroline Spelman with farmers putting up banners on their land close to busy roads carrying the RSPB’s message.

Dr Mark Avery, the RSPB’s director of conservation, said: “The members of the Star Chamber have a huge responsibility. They have to make meaningful cuts without harming vital services. We have been arguing very strongly that the natural environment is not the place to make swingeing cuts.”

Official statistics from Defra show that showed that 80 per cent of all Environmental Stewardship expenditure is spent locally, with every 1 invested in HLS resulting in 1.43 being spent within a 40-minute drive of the agreement holder.

Fears are that if HLS was cut, contractors, suppliers and local shops would all feel the pinch.

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Chris Tomson, the RSPB’s agricultural adviser for Yorkshire, said: “We know that there is a big interest in wildlife – we as an organisation have more than a million members. Wildlife has a huge commercial value and people are increasingly travelling to Yorkshire to see wildlife. I know of one farmer in Yorkshire who has a bird hide on her farm.

“There is also the issue of education and the access that school children have to farms who come there to enjoy the wildlife – this is all financed by the help of HLS and there will be a big impact on the wider rural community if it is not continued. In Yorkshire, endangered species such as corn buntings, black grouse, curlews and tree sparrows would slip even further into decline without HLS funding to secure their management.

“Rare and important habitats such as blanket bog, reedbeds and wet meadows would also be doomed. These areas are some of our most important for wildlife, tourism, and water and carbon storage.”

One farmer to experience the benefits of environmental work is William Shaw from Hooten Roberts, near Rotherham in South Yorkshire. Mr Shaw manages his land through HLS and thanks to his work the farm is home to some of Britain’s most threatened farmland birds including corn buntings, lapwings and tree sparrows.

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“If HLS payments were scrapped, I would find it difficult to deliver these environmental benefits,” he said.

A Defra spokesman said cost saving measures were being drawn up but he would not be drawn on where they might be.

“Improving and protecting our many species and habitats is one of Defra’s key priorities,” he said.

A White paper on Government proposes to protect and enhance biodiversity is due in spring 2011.

To sign the petition log onto www.rspb.org.uk/spendingcuts

Comment: Page 10.