Cornwall AONB ELMS Trial
At the moment, Gain is assisting the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in one of Defra’s ELMS test/ trials. Defra are running over forty ELMS trials across the country at the moment (ELMS standing for Environmental Land Management Scheme), to test different approaches to a new system of Agri-environment support, post Brexit.
Our trial is part of ‘Farming for the Nation’, a group of AONB led trials, under the umbrella of the National Association of AONBs. The study area is the Lizard in South West Cornwall where partner in the trial, FWAG South West, has established a farmers and agencies working group. Colette Beckham, Gain Director will be working with the group to describe, map and better understand the ‘natural capital’ of the Lizard and the opportunities to maximise the public benefits that flow from it; services such as carbon storage, flood alleviation, water and air quality and pollination services.
We’ll be working with local farmers and landowners, along with Natural England, The National Trust and the Environment Agency to establish natural capital/ ecosystem services objectives for the study area, based on the Lawton principles of ‘bigger, better and more joined up’. This initial work will be used to develop a Landscape Management Plan and ‘Natural Capital Prospectus’ for the ‘South Coast Western’ section of the AONB.
Examining Natural Capital Types on Lizard Point.
Later in the trial, following on from objectives setting, we’ll be looking at valuing the improvement in ecosystem services proposed by our objectives. At the same time, project partners at the University of Exeter in Penryn will be working with a subset of our farming group to ascertain how any changes in farming practice required to deliver the objectives may impact on farm business sustainability. We’ll be working with Dr Grace Twiston Davies from the University to also examine how we might establish appropriate levels of farm payment.
Its early days yet in our trial and obviously the Covid-19 situation has impacted greatly on our ability to meet our farmers face to face but we’ve been making good use of online conferencing and this is enabling the trial to continue (although we’re very much looking forward to being able to work with our group in person again, once its safe to do so). At the moment, we’ve completed much of our data gathering and mapping and we’re moving forward to start to examine potential objectives.
We’ll be regularly reporting on progress to this year long project, so keep an eye on ‘Field Notes’ for updates.