Delivering Projects For Nature Meeting Report
On the 3rd December, we hosted the first cluster event of the winter at the Plumpton College AgriFood Centre. The meeting focused on the topic of delivering projects for Nature, what that currently looks like across other parts of the downs and what it could like for the Eastern South Downs cluster. To answer that question we invited a number of speakers including Gareth and Ryan from Weald to Waves and Cath and Bruce from the South Downs National Park. There talks helped to provide some rationale behind the need for projects for nature as well as sparking inspiration and discussion around what potential projects are currently of interest to the group. A brief overview of each talk and the main discussion takeaways can be found below.
Weald to Waves
Gareth began by giving a brief overview of the origin story of the Weald to Waves project and its evolution to its present-day status. In its current form, Weald to Waves endeavours to work with the land managers in the corridor who pledge to deliver actions for nature, by identifying funding mechanisms to deliver habitat and management changes. Gareth emphasised the small size of the Weald to Waves team, which allows them to work in an agile and flexible manner across the corridor. Despite this, he also highlighted the strong need for collaborative working and how pooling resources and expertise from partner organisations are helping Weald to Waves deliver their mission. Ryan went on to describe in a little more detail, what the benefits were of pledging to the corridor. In the simplest terms, pledging was described as a means of contributing your hectares to the Weald to Waves Corridor. Ryan and Gareth were keen to stress that this was in no way a legal or binding agreement and that contributing your hectares in no way meant all your land was to be used for nature recovery for the foreseeable future. In addition to this, pledging to the corridor brought with it a number of benefits, including a free consultation and habitat survey with Ryan of the pledged hectares and access to events planned for the new year.
South Downs National Park
Bruce explored a number of examples of projects that were being delivered by other cluster groups across the downs. These included:
The Arun to Adur Farmland Bird feeder project which used 10 tonnes of seed annually for three years across 300 feeders to supplement food sources for farmland birds
The South Downs Farmers Group Hedgerow Project who are creating a group wide hedgerow management plan including cutting, laying, coppicing and new planting)
The Winchester Downs Soil and Carbon project who are working with Consultants to deliver detailed soil analysis and carbon audits that were shared with the wider group
The Selbourne landscape Partnership Pollinators Project aiming to use their map of maps to identify where pollinators are across the group in order to inform future management.
These examples showcased the variety of options out there for how the group could proceed with their own project. Bruce highlighted the need for there to be a clear understanding of what it is the group want to achieve and do in order to achieve the best results from a project.
Cath then followed with a brief overview of some currently available funding streams for delivering more individual projects. The changing Chalk grazing project are offering small capital grants of up to £5000 for any farmers looking to adopt or improve conservation grazing practises on chalk grassland. One of the cluster members explained how they have used this funding to purchase No fence collars to keep grazing animals to the appropriate areas.
It was also announced that the new Beelines fund from the South Downs Trust had opened for applications, offering a maximum grant of £5,000 for establishing and restoring pollinator habitat and costs relating to this process.
Discussion/ main takeaways
The main takeaways from all talks was the importance of Group consensus on an achievable project. Next, justification of the project by predicting the added value is essential for getting funding. The Map of Maps acts as a vital starting point which can be used to signpost evidence for a chosen project. The discussion also explored how further planning such as the use of habitat connectivity modelling could be used to further support justification behind a chosen objective.
The second biggest take away, which often seems to be the case, was the “small” question of funding. Weald to waves were keen to stress the power of size in attracting investment, making cluster wide projects an important mechanism for doing this. There was the continued mention of the present but illusive statutory BNG market which caused a number of issues for the group, mainly the incompatibility of a 30 year commitment with tenant farming. The subject of regenerative agriculture as an important steps towards achieving a balance between nature and business profitability also came up with the mention of a project at Pepworth Farm focused around how to monetise good soil.