Sheep in green field with old stone built barn in misty countryside (Image: Getty)
Farmers have helped threatened nature recover across the country while producing food in a profitable way, conservationists have said.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said that with 70% of the UK farmed, reversing nature’s decline would not be possible without the agricultural sector.
Katie-jo Luxton, director of conservation at the RSPB, said the nation cannot save nature without the help of farmers.
She added: “Despite the pressures that a changing climate and biodiversity loss can bring, many brilliant farmers and land managers are already rising to the challenge of restoring nature while still producing food in a profitable way.”
Earlier this year, conservationists and farmers alike celebrated a 25% rise in the number of Turtle Doves within the western European population, following a hunting moratorium in Portugal, Spain and France.
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Following the news, a record number of farmers, land managers and volunteers have been helping this threatened species in its eastern England strongholds, using nature-friendly farming practices to help create more Turtle Dove friendly habitats.
Meanwhile farmers, and Cornish locals were overjoyed when the highest number of Chough pairs were recorded making breeding attempts along Cornwall’s coastline this summer, fledging 108 Choughlets around the Kernow coastline alone.
Choughs were extinct from their traditional Cornish coastline habitat just 50 years ago because of changes in agricultural practices.
Curlew Life, a dedicated four-year project, has sparked hope as an upward trend in the number of Curlew chicks fledging across five sites in the UK was celebrated this autumn.
Working with farmers and land managers across thousands of hectares, the project
has deployed a mix of conservation solutions to improve the fortunes of Curlew including nest protection and habitat restoration.
This work can also benefit a host of other threatened species such as Snipe, Redshank and Lapwing.
Ms Luxton said: “We know what it will take to secure the future of our wildlife and our food security; nature-friendly farming must be implemented at a far larger scale, and with adequate financial and technical support for farmers to deliver it.
“All eyes are on the governments of the UK to ensure the transition to sustainable and nature-rich farmland is delivered with the ambition our nature urgently needs.”
By Victoria Atkins, Shadow Environment Secretary
As we head into the New Year, I am worried about the future of food and farming in our great country.
After just six months in power, we have witnessed a Labour government that has waged war on farming, businesses and rural communities. They have imposed a vindictive Family Farm Tax that will lead to farming businesses being split up and sold off. That will lead to higher food prices for consumers and a greater reliance on imports. Of course, City Steve Reed hasn’t even bothered to do an impact assessment.
Labour simply don’t understand rural communities. The Chancellor and City Steve have got their numbers wrong – as highlighted by stakeholder groups, industry experts and farmers themselves. Farmers and farming families have been to London in their thousands to try and get this Labour government to listen. They won’t.
We gave Labour MPs an opportunity to vote to axe the Family Farm Tax and back British farming; not a single one of them did so.
Across vast swathes of our countryside, Labour intend to swap food production for solar plants. Rather than protecting prime agricultural land – and a presumption against concreting over it – in areas like my own constituency in Lincolnshire, the Government seem intent on using it for solar panels. Why is City Steve not standing up for Britain’s food security? Of course we need to safeguard our energy supply, but solar panels should be installed on the roofs of warehouses, barns, and sheds instead of the fields that feed us.
Rural communities should be entering 2025 with optimism and hope. Instead, they are worried. A Family Farm Tax, a Jobs Tax, a national insurance hike, the removal of winter fuel payments, higher bills, and the risk of their homes being carpeted with solar panels; this Labour Government has had an abysmal start and seem content to drive rural areas into the ground.
We Conservatives are the friends of rural communities. As the official opposition, we will fight the Government’s damaging plans throughout 2025.