Adapting landscapes and farming to a changing climate

1. Adapting landscapes and farming to a changing climate Jim Smyllie Executive Director, Regional Delivery

2. A ‘perfect storm’ of challenges in coming decades • Climate change • Population growth • Growing pressure on food, energy and water supplies • Farmers, foresters, land managers will be directly affected • And have a central role to play

3. Consequences of climate change for farming Consequences of: • warmer conditions • longer growing seasons... • drought... • extreme hot weather... • storms and heavy rainfall... will bring both threats and opportunities • Effects will vary from area to area and from year to year. Photo courtesy of Farming Futures

4. This has significant implications for food production • AND for all the other benefits that agricultural land provides to society

5. The Cotswolds clearly demonstrates the wider benefits of farmland • Biodiversity: limestone grasslands, ancient woodlands, farmland birds, wildflowers, rare species

6. Recreation, public health and tourism • Over 3,000 miles of public footpaths; 38 million day visitors each year • Major tourist industry

7. Local communities and livelihoods (built up over centuries of human habitation) Sheepscombe Village

8. Environmental ‘regulating services’ • e.g. water cycling and purification; • carbon storage

9. Landscape change • The Cotswolds landscape has changed in the past: • Natural processes • Quarrying and building of towns • Grazing, cropping, forestry • And will continue to change as the climate changes: • Ecosystems • Farming systems and location of production • Overall landscape changes

10. Climate change is already having an effect • Adonis Blue butterfly is back in the Cotswolds after 40 years of absence • Milder winters and hot summer weather probably a significant factor

11. Managing change • Need to accept and manage future change, but not all changes need be bad • Opportunities as well as threats • Accept that change will happen, but to try to maintain the benefits the area provides

12. We need an integrated approach Healthy natural environment Local communities & livelihoods Agricultural production Wider social benefits

13. Farmers as providers of vital ‘green infrastructure’ • Farmers have an important role to help society adapt. E.g.: • Management of surface water: sustainable drainage systems, ponds, wetlands, water meadows, river flood plains   • Planting and maintaining trees • Effective, sustainable and cost effective • Increasingly important as climate change continues

14. Adaptation action • Joint project between Defra, NE, EA and FC has identified wide range of actions farmers are likely to need to carry out • Planning and risk assessment • Changing and diversifying crops • Land management (e.g. trees and sustainable drainage) • Technology and infrastructure • Management of crops, livestock, chemical inputs and water

15. Many actions have multiple benefits for agricultural production, natural ecosystems and reducing greenhouse gases • Many of these correspond to current good practice Photo courtesy of Farming Futures Photo courtesy of Farming Futures

16. ‘Adaptive management’ approach • No single solution and no ‘one size fits all’ response. Adaptation must address local issues and aspirations • Placed-based visions important (‘What are we adapting for?’)

17. The role of agri-environment schemes • Provide an important income stream to encourage provision of a wider range of benefits from agricultural land • Across England we now have over 58 000 agreements, bringing almost 67% of agricultural land under some form of environmental management

18. Agri-environment schemes and mitigation • Increase carbon storage in soils and vegetation • Reduce inputs of fuel, fertiliser and pesticides • ES sequesters ~ 1.6m tonnes C yr-1 in soils across the country (equivalent to approx. 5% of all emissions from English agriculture) • E.g.: Restoration of peatlands unfertilised buffer strips Before After

19. Agri-environment schemes and adaptation • Restore and create habitats • Buffer habitats • Protect soils and water • Can help provide the sorts of ‘green infrastructure’ discussed earlier • Through HLS alone we have spent around £90m in the last three years on measures that contribute to mitigation or adaptation or both WTBCNP

20. Agri-environment schemes in the Cotswolds • Agri-environment agreements cover the majority of the Cotswold Hills • Priority target area for HLS • More than 700 Environmental Stewardship agreements • Covering an area of over 73,000ha • Value of over £42m • Plus several hundred existing ESA and CSS agreements

21. Farmland birds (and much more) • The Cotswolds has nationally important populations of farmland birds • One of four projects in the wider South West Farmland Bird initiative, • Targeted advice to ask farmers to deliver package of important habitat options • Working with CCB

22. Huge response from Cotswolds farming community: 65 out of 69 farms that we approached have signed up • 26 agreements now live or have been offered • Great results already both for birds and for wider environmental objectives • SW farmland bird approach has now been adopted nationwide

23. Advice on soil and water management • Good soil and water management will be a foundation of sustainable adaptation • Natural England’s SW region has recently launched the Soils 4 Profit scheme • Joint project between RDA, EA and NE • £3.4 m of funding up to 2013 • Provides advice to landowners on nutrient use

24. Landscape connectivity • Protected landscapes need to be connected and work properly from both an ecological and cultural perspective • Working with CCB to connect fragmented Cotswolds habitats through Environmental Stewardship • Focusing on limestone grasslands in the west Cotswolds

25. Making our schemes even better • Climate training for NE land management advisers • ELS advice messages on adaptation and mitigation to be incorporated into our farm advice programmes • Looking at reviewing some ES options • Improving HLS targeting (following our climate vulnerability studies across a range of English landscapes) • Working with Defra on the development of the Low Carbon Advisory Service

26. Conclusion • Protecting landscapes can bring both • environmental and social benefits • more resilient, adaptable, and profitable farms • Requires an integrated approach and recognition of full range of services from agricultural land • Important role for AONBs • Need to work together to prepare for future changes