The Scottish Wildlife Trust is calling for a full reform of agriculture subsidies in Scotland, echoing calls made by the Director of the National Trust Dame Helen Ghosh.
Scottish agriculture receives around £600 million in public support each year, the majority of which comes through the Common Agricultural Policy. However, only a small proportion supports healthy ecosystems and wildlife.
The Scottish Wildlife Trust believes that a complete redesign of agricultural policy is required to ensure that public money provides benefits including long term improvements to habitat quality, increasing biodiversity on farmland and connecting habitats on a landscape scale.
80 per cent of Scotland’s land area (6.2 million hectares) is used for agriculture.
Jonathan Hughes, Chief Executive of the Scottish Wildlife Trust said: “We commend the National Trust for setting out the six principles for a new agricultural support system post-Brexit. These principles are very much aligned to the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s own stated policies on both sustainable agriculture and upland land use.
“For too long, hundreds of millions of pounds a year have been handed out in farming subsidies for very little benefit to the taxpayer, our shared environment and the wildlife that depends on the health of our environment. In fact, badly targeted subsidies have often led to expensive problems such as flooding, soil erosion, water pollution and biodiversity loss.
“There is still some uncertainty whether Scotland can remain part of the European Union but whatever scenario plays out, the Scottish Government should completely redesign our current agricultural policy so it rewards those farmers and land managers who deliver public benefits in the form of clean water, healthy soils, nutritious food and thriving wildlife.
“We stand together with the National Trust, our colleagues in the Wildlife Trust movement and many other environmental organisations across the UK in calling for root and branch reform of our outmoded, distorting and damaging agriculture policy.”
The six principles set out by Dame Helen Ghosh:
(Figures relate to the UK)
1. Public money must only pay for public goods. Currently, most of a £600m fund paid from the EU (out of the £3.1bn CAP funding to the UK) benefits wildlife and the environment. The majority of the remainder is allocated based on the size of farm. There will need to be a transition to the new world but this basic income support payment should be removed.
2. It should be unacceptable to harm nature but easy to help it. Currently, only 1/3 of the basic payment is conditional on meeting ‘green’ farming standards. In the future, 100% of any public payment should be conditional on meeting higher standards of wildlife, soil and water stewardship.
3. Nature should be abundant everywhere. The system needs to support nature in the lowlands as well as the uplands – people in towns and cities also need access to wildlife, recreation and the services the environment provides.
4. We need to drive better outcomes for nature, thinking long-term and on a large scale. Nature doesn’t respect farm boundaries and needs joined up habitats on a landscape scale with subsidies implemented on a farm-by-farm basis. In the future, we should start at the landscape level, with farmers and landowners working collaboratively to set plans based on clear outcomes.
5. Farmers that deliver the most public benefit, should get the most. Currently, the more land you own, the more money you get. In the future, those farmers and land managers who get the most public money should be those who deliver the best outcomes.
6. We must invest in science, new technology and new markets that help nature. Currently, some science and technology harms nature – it increases crop yields with big machines and harmful fertilizers. In the future, public money should help create ways of farming that benefit nature and help develop new markets to reward farmer for storing carbon, preventing floods and promoting biodiversity.