Natural Environment White Paper welcomed by CLA

The CLA today welcomed the Government’s Natural Environment White Paper’s recognition of the contribution made by land managers.

The Association said the paper, The Natural Choice: securing the value of nature, illustrated the importance of land managers and farmers being rewarded for providing environmental services to the public as well as producing food.

CLA President William Worsley said: "We welcome the Natural Environment White Paper’s acknowledgment that farmers and foresters do a huge range of valuable environmental work on top of producing food and timber.

"We are pleased the Government shares the CLA’s view on the importance of justifying the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) because its potential for improving wildlife is enormous. The Government must fight in Europe for a sufficiently funded CAP to provide the right incentives to support the natural environment.

"The landscape scale approach underpinning the Nature Improvement Areas pilot scheme is the right way forward, as is the more local approach set out in the Green Area Designation proposals, but we need to ensure land managers are not put off participating through fear of yet more cumbersome planning controls."

Mr Worsley added: "However, the Community Right to Buy proposals are disappointing. They are a real disincentive for providing land for wildlife and other natural sites."