Adapting landscapes and farming to a changing climate

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Adapting landscapes and farming to a changing
climate

• Jim Smyllie
• Executive Director, Regional Delivery

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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

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

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The Cotswolds clearly demonstrates the wider
benefits of farmland

• Biodiversity
• limestone grasslands, ancient woodlands,
  farmland birds, wildflowers, rare species

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Recreation, public health and tourism

• Over 3,000 miles of public footpaths 38 million
  day visitors each year
• Major tourist
• industry

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Local communities and livelihoods

• (built up over centuries of human habitation)

Sheepscombe Village
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Environmental regulating services

• e.g. water cycling and
• purification
• carbon storage

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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

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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

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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

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

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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

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• 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
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• 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?)

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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

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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
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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
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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

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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

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• 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

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Advice on soil and water management

• Good soil and water management will be a
  foundation of sustainable adaptation
• Natural Englands 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

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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

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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

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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

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