By Sue Evans, GWCT Cymru Policy Director
As I start my new role as Policy Director Wales, it’s hard to think of good news stories within the Welsh farming sector right now – two cases of avian influenza have been confirmed, bluetongue threatens, and the inheritance tax on farms is at the forefront of farmers’ minds as we now enter show season.
We’re expecting an announcement on the new Sustainable Farming Scheme any day before the Royal Welsh Show, an event which provides us with a perfect platform to get together and discuss the details of the scheme.
Feeling the pressure of Basic Payment being phased out over the next three years, farmers are left in a state of uncertainty over what will follow and are having to focus on the bottom line. And because you can’t be green if you’re in the red, the pressure on nature increases. GWCT’s work, which demonstrates that biodiversity and the environment can benefit alongside farming enterprises, becomes even more relevant in times of uncertainty.
Under the Wales Environment Bill, which is expected to become an Act before the end of this political term in May 2026, the government is setting itself biodiversity targets, which it will have to meet.
This is largely to help deliver on the IUCN 30 by 30 targets – to protect 30% of land and sea in Wales for nature by 2030 – so the government is feeling the pressure.
They are looking at OECMs (Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures – areas that are not formally designated as protected areas but still achieve the long-term conservation of biodiversity), but my question is why will farmers want their land to be included? Farmers’ perception of making space for nature is that it will result in lower output and lower profit margins. Unless markets reflect the value and importance of nature, this may look more like another public good being demanded of farmers without any obvious financial remuneration.
We know how to reverse biodiversity decline. This has been demonstrated over and over again, most recently with farmers in Montgomeryshire where the GWCT works with them to reverse curlew decline. But can we persuade the public and government to go with what works, rather than a populist idealism, and will the financial drivers be put in place to do so?
Professor Simon Denny′s report, Conserving Birds and Nature in Wales, looks at some of the differences between funding given to nature reserves versus funding to farmers in Wales, and highlights the choices government should make to deliver most for nature.