Blogs

In a bid to make the most out of research and development (R&D) spending on agriculture and nature, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has unveiled an exciting new initiative.

The Government's Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) has made significant strides since its launch, with updated data showcasing its impact alongside Countryside Stewardship (CS) and Environmental Stewardship (ES) options.

Over the last few weeks, the Scottish Lowlands team has been busy completing the tenth year of spring grey partridge pair surveys on Balgonie farm.

Historically, Scottish agri-environmental schemes have found it difficult to find a balance between establishing measures for biodiversity and ensuring that the system itself works for farmers.

Our Director of Policy and the Allerton Project, Dr Alastair Leake, shares his thoughts on the latest domestic hedgerow regulations.

The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) has shared scientific evidence with Welsh Government and demonstrated why hedgerows should be included in their 10% woodland requirement, but they have not taken this forward.

On a drizzly Saturday in November, four students packed up their fieldwork gear and drove up the winding and picturesque road to Auchnerran, the GWCT Scottish Demonstration Farm.

It’s been a busy start to the new year for the Scottish Lowlands research team. We’ve spent the last few weeks setting up gamebird feeders to carry out research into supplementary winter feeding for farmland birds.

Although farmer clusters have been going in England since 2012 and have been immensely successful (with over 100 connected to GWCT now established) unfortunately in Scotland we have not seen this same level realised. So why is this, and what can we do to kick-start their uptake in Scotland?

Many parts of the English rolling landscape are criss-crossed by hedgerows, which if one stops and looks provide an interesting perspective on the history of the landscape being observed.