The Scottish Wildlife Trust has responded to the new so-called ‘greening’ measures announced by the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Richard Lochhead.

Chief Executive of the Scottish Wildlife Trust, Jonny Hughes, said: “Scottish farmers will receive subsidies from the taxpayer of around £580 million this year to support their businesses.

“In return, farmers will be expected to provide some modest ‘greening’ measures designed to reduce pollution, improve soils and stem the decline of wildlife, such as ground nesting birds, bees, butterflies, moths and other pollinators.

“One thing farmers need to do to receive the subsidies is to keep 5% of their farms as ‘Ecological Focus Areas’, in other words, they need to maintain a small area where wildlife can thrive within an often intensively managed arable or mixed farm.

“The Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Richard Lochhead, has announced that in order to count as Ecological Focus Areas nitrogen fixing crops will have to be managed to meet certain conditions. These conditions include not harvesting nitrogen fixing crops before the 1st of August, to protect ground nesting birds, and making sure that at least two different nitrogen fixing crops are grown, to extend the flowering period for pollinators such as bees.

“The Scottish Wildlife Trust, therefore, welcomes the announcement and hopes that though a modest measure, the planting of nitrogen-fixing crops in small areas on lowland farms may help begin to reverse the decline in our farmland birds and insects.

“Farming interests have called this announcement a ‘stringent management restriction’. The Scottish Wildlife Trust disagrees and prefers to view this as a win-win where food can be produced at the same time as other non-market benefits such as reduction of pollution from artificial fertilizers, improved soils and more birds and bees.

“Of the £580 million subsidy being paid to farmers in Scotland this year, only a fraction will go towards protecting wildlife, including helping farmers with creating Ecological Focus Areas.

“In anyone’s book, the announcement on nitrogen-fixing crops represents a good deal for the farmers and a small step in the right direction for encouraging wildlife to return to our agricultural landscapes.”