Cornwall AONB Farming for the Nation: Lizard Test /Trial Concludes

Tregullas Farm, Lizard Point, Rona Amiss

The Defra test/ trial on the Lizard was led by Gain Consulting on behalf of the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Partnership and supported by The University of Exeter, and FWAG South West. The broad aim of the test/ trial was to examine how the Future Schemes can use a fuller understanding of natural capital and ecosystem services to develop a landscape scale scheme and to investigate the value of the public goods benefits. To test approaches to delivery on farm and to understanding the impact of the proposed changes on farmers in the project area.

Section 08 of the Cornwall AONB, ‘South Coast Western’ was identified as a valuable place to test how we set objectives for the provision of public goods in a rural farming landscape and how groups of farmers can be supported to deliver objectives collaboratively. The Lizard Peninsula is widely designated for its biodiversity and historic value. Large parts are covered by SSSI, Goonhilly National Nature Reserve sitting at its heart, and there are a very high number of Scheduled Monuments. The area has seen significant investment in land management advice, yet its heritage features and biodiversity are still in declining condition. The trial uses forward-thinking work carried out by the AONB Partnership to map and describe natural capital and ecosystem services, enabling stakeholders to develop a landscape-scale ecosystem services recovery plan for the project area., which we called the ‘Landscape Recovery Framework’

Trial Aims

Lawrence Sampson, FWAGSW

1. Establish a farmer cluster group in the project area and build good communication, knowledge, and collaboration so that the group can develop landscape-scale, public goods objectives.

2. Use the best available mapped and empirical data to understand the project area's landscape and natural capital and use this to understand the opportunities and desired outcomes for natural capital and ecosystem services in the trial area.

3. Understand the value of achieving the desired public goods outcome and how this might relate to payments and investments.

4. Provide clarity on an appropriate spatial framework over which to set public goods objectives.

5. Achieve an improved understanding of how natural capital/ ecosystem services management can contribute to a more resilient and sustainable farming system at a landscape-scale.

6. Better understand and appreciate natural capital/ecosystem services opportunities in the landscape and the wider benefits to people.

7. Define objectives for enhancing the natural capital of the Lizard through farmer/ land manager/ landowner involvement.

8. Establish guidance, success measures, methods of monitoring, and an adaptive learning/management approach.

Results

So what about the results? Over 18 months working with an amazing group of farmers, a lot was learned that will be useful in refining the new system of Agri-environment support. The full results and project outputs can be found on the Cornwall AONB website.

Maximising ecosystem services

The production of a Landscape Recovery Framework was a key element providing a locally derived and supported plan grounded in data. Facilitation of the farmer group enabled the development of highly ambitious and impressive objectives and targets in the Framework, and the process encouraged trust, collaboration, and peer-to-peer knowledge exchange among the farmer group. The production of such a plan would be highly beneficial, particularly at landscape recovery, and could be a requirement of a collaborative scheme under Farming in Protected Landscapes, Landscape Recovery, or the collaborative element of Nature Recovery. The production of such a plan is likely to maximise public goods benefits, over and above the current system where a Countryside Stewardship Scheme is developed from a core list of nationally derived options.

The Landscape Recovery Framework provided a very useful strategy and starting point from which to consider individual farm plans. Individual Farm Action Plans should be co-created with the farmer using a Landscape Recovery Framework for guidance. Spatial maps can play a role in monitoring since they enable spatial plans to be produced at the scheme end and at appropriate intervals to show where implementation has occurred. Reporting in this way could render specific prescriptions unnecessary and building greater flexibility for the farmer to decide what is best for their farm.

Supporting collaboration

Collaboration in a group setting is essential for creating a joint vision and direction for land management across a landscape. An approach that focuses on collaboration to create the Framework and develops a mechanism for collaborative shared agreements, as well as Individual Farm Actions Plans, is very beneficial. The co-creation with expert facilitation of the Landscape Recovery Framework and the document itself are both tools to foster collaboration and co-ordination and increase farmers' skills and knowledge. Even if a farmer isn't involved in the co-creation of the Framework, knowing that other farmers were involved could promote uptake.

Yellowhammer, Lawrence Sampson, FWAGSW

Value and investment

The Net value for delivery of a subset of objectives in the Framework was estimated to be between £3.7M to £15.8M. The net value for the change in ecosystem services provision after scheme completion is thought to be a useful indication of the value of a scheme. The minimum asking price for the farmers to be incentivised to deliver their ambitious farm action plans, based on the Landscape Recovery Framework, was £556 per Ha. This represented an average £3:1 return on investment on the gross value of ecosystem services at the scheme end (10 years).

Farmers were extremely unlikely to implement action in the individual farm plans under the current payment system (including BPS), which are not enough to incentivise the ambition of the farmer group. There is a significant risk of losing the current provision of public goods generated under existing schemes and a threat to the protected landscapes of large-scale landscape change if payment levels are not increased to cover losses from the Basic Payment Scheme. On the Lizard, this is likely to be due to intensification/ renting ground to large horticultural companies.

The Natural Capital Prospectus highlighted some of the main opportunities and barriers to private sector investment in nature and landscape recovery. Investment-ready mechanisms currently available are the biodiversity offsetting and woodland and peatland carbon codes. The Natural Capital Prospectus functioned well as an investment prospectus and a starting point in developing investment-ready projects.

Central government can do more to incentivise investment in nature and landscape recovery, such as the kind that has already been achieved for social impact investing. Opportunities for private sector investment do exist where specific stakeholders can see clear benefits e.g. Water companies investing in water quality measures, tourism business investing in landscape aesthetics, or insurance companies investing in reduced flood risk. Work is needed better to quantify the benefits and outcomes of nature recovery projects. There is significant potential for the AONB to act as an investment 'broker' for nature recovery in the protected landscape.