Soil and Water Protection Through Integrated Catchment Management

1
Soil and Water Protection Through Integrated
Catchment Management

• Tuesday 16 October 2007, SCI, London
• Integrated Catchment Management the Agriculture
  Context
• Patrice Mongelard
• Catchment Sensitive Farming
• Defra

2
Introduction

• Agriculture why and what
• Management of farmers challenges and drivers for
  change
• Integration knowledge, objectives and delivery
• Catchment scale and context

3
Agriculture - why?

• 82 of rivers, 53 of lakes, 25 of estuaries,
  24 of coastal waters and 75 of ground waters
  are at risk
• Phosphorus pollution is a significant problem for
  50 of rivers and 25 of lakes
• Sediment pollution from eroded soil is a risk for
  21 of rivers
• Faecal Indicator Organism pollution in bathing
  and shellfish waters

4
Agriculture what?
Diffuse pollution mitigation measures Catchment
Sensitive Farming
Livestock Management
Yard
Crop Protection
Soil Protection
Nutrients Fertilisers
Protecting Watercourses
5
Managing Farmers

• Creating ownership of problems and solutions
• Accommodating the realities of farming
• Achieving behavioural change by voluntary or
  compulsory measures

6
Degrees of difficulty

• Awareness and attitudes
• Evidence and cognitive barriers
• Farm incomes
• Hierarchy of practices

7
ECSFDI farmer survey some key findings

• 40 dont know causes of water pollution
• 81 believe agriculture contributes little, or
  not at all to water pollution in their catchment
• Only 19 felt they could do more to reduce water
  pollution
• 28 said there are obstacles preventing them
  from doing more

8
Drivers for change

• Public expectations
• Scientific evidence
• Environmental lobbying
• CAP reform Agri-environment schemes
• Farm assurance schemes retailer protocols

9
Integrated knowledge

• Multi-disciplinary and multi-layered
• Knowledge transfer
• Knowledge in context and for solutions
• Technical support

10
Integrating objectives

• Land use connectivities
• Policy integration, i.e. CAP reform
• Agri-environment schemes
• Linkages within WFD

11
Integrating delivery

• Partnerships
• Sharing technical expertise
• Using existing channels and points of reference
• Local dimension

12
Scale and context

• Catchments are large and complex
• Agriculture not the only pressure
• From catchment to farm

13
The way ahead

• Defra consultation on tackling DWPA three
  alternatives
• Water companies PR09
• WFD Programme of Measures

14
From theory to practice

• Role for physical and social sciences
• Smart policy interventions
• Catchment managers / officers

15
Conclusion

• Can it work?
• Does it work?