The Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT) today (6 July 2004) welcomed the announcement by Allan Wilson, Deputy Minister for Environment and Rural Development, of £42.3 million in funding for schemes that support environmentally friendly farming.
This substantial increase of over £10 million on previous annual spending on previous funding for initiatives such as the Rural Stewardship Scheme (RSS) and the Organic Aid Scheme (OAS) is seen by SWT as positive action towards promoting balance in Scotland’s landscape.
“The Minister’s announcement is an important step for farming in Scotland” says SWT’s policy and parliamentary manager Lisa Schneidau “It signals that the tide is finally turning for wildlife on Scotland’s farms – both in the number of farmers participating in schemes, and in the amount of money spent”.
Yet as Lisa continues, with over 70 per cent of Scotland’s land farmed and over £450 million of tax payers money spent on farm subsidies in Scotland each year, it still represents a small proportion of the total. “This should be seen as a welcome start to a longer process of ‘greening’ agriculture, even more support will be needed if we are to properly restore the wildlife that has been lost through intensive methods. As radical changes to the Common Agricultural Policy [CAP] subsidy system are progressed, we urge the Minister to make a long term commitment to use even more of this subsidy for protecting, enhancing and restoring our precious wildlife resource.”
Poor allocation of funding through the Scottish Rural Development Plan has seen Scottish farmers struggling to gain subsidy for more wildlife-friendly farming practices, like hedge planting, restoration of wetlands and allowing space for wildlife on field margins. However, over the last few years farmers have been told that their applications for RSS will probably not be successful unless they fall below a certain financial limit. Most applicants are likely to claim no more than £20,000 for a five year scheme, effectively ‘capping’ the environmental benefit delivered per farm.
With new opportunities available to Scotland through the mid-term review of the CAP, SWT urges the Minister to ensure that increased funding for agri-environment initiative substantially in the long term. SWT will continue to work with the Scottish Executive on this issue in the coming months.
