Farmers'should be paid to protectour hills'

FARMERS should be paid to protect Britain’s hills as a vital part of the way the country produces food, tackles climate change and manages flood risk, say experts from a Yorkshire university.

Scientists say earning a living on the United Kingdom uplands is becoming increasingly difficult and as the area depopulates the country risks losing the management of it.

A project led by Leeds and Aberdeen Universities has called for more investment into the uplands, which include parts of the Pennines, the Cumbrian fells and much of Scotland.

This landscape provides 70 per cent of the nation’s drinking water and is the country’s largest single store of carbon.

Leeds University Professor Joseph Holden, co-leader of the Sustainable Uplands project, said: “The uplands are not just barren patches of wilderness, they are highly-managed landscapes that many people in the UK depend on for their livelihoods.

“Most current payments to upland farmers are based on the area of land they hold rather than what they’re using it for.

“But society needs people managing the hills to protect water supplies and unique wildlife, and to keep carbon locked in peat soils.

“Peatlands store up carbon dioxide. They are an important part of the way the country can affect climate change. As our carbon dioxide emissions have been increasing the peatlands have been absorbing it.

“However if peatlands are not managed and are allowed to degrade then the land no longer stores carbon and emissions increase.

“What we are saying is that money which is being spend on water quality at a treatment plant or on flood defences could be better spent ensuring the management of the uplands to improve water or reduce the risk of flooding.”

Recommendations from the Sustainable Uplands project would see farmers rewarded financially for ensuring the land produces clean water and can store carbon.

The researchers used computer models to show what effect different types of land management would have on the landscape and have spent five years talking to land owners and farmers about their concerns over the future of the uplands.

Prof Holden said: “What was unique about this project is that we have gone to the farmers and the people responsible for managing the uplands to see what they wanted us to look at. This engendered an attitude of commitment between academics and the people living on the uplands and it has been a real joint process.”

Dr Mark Reed from Aberdeen University, co-leader of the project, said: “This isn’t about new funding – it’s about using existing money more effectively.”

This might involve paying bonuses to people joining together to work on things.

The recommendations appear in a new report entitled Sustainable uplands: re-shaping land use policy for our hills.