Defra names farmer recipients of Landscape Recovery funding

Farmer cluster groups are among the beneficiaries of the first round of funding offered through England’s new Landscape Recovery scheme.

Defra has published a list of the 22 projects that made successful bids for a share of £12m allocated to the first stage of the pilot – one of the three strands of the Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme.

The Landscape Recovery scheme is aimed at landowners and land managers who want to take a more radical and large-scale approach to producing environmental and climate goods on their land.

See also: Landscape recovery funding will benefit farmers, says Green Alliance

Each of the 22 projects covers an area of between 500ha and 5,000ha.

The list of successful projects includes some farmer clusters, where groups of farmers are already working collaboratively on conservation projects with the assistance of an adviser or facilitator.

These include the Breckland Farmers Wildlife Network project and the North East Cotswolds Farmer Cluster project.

Projects will initially be offered development grants which they will use to finalise their delivery plans, ahead of them starting implementation on the ground.

Defra said the majority of projects would involve groups of land managers and farmers, including tenants, working together to deliver a range of environmental benefits across farmed and rural landscapes.

It estimates that hundreds of farmers and landowners are involved and, collectively, the successful projects aim to restore nearly 700km of rivers and protect and enhance 263 wildlife species.