17 February 2009

East Anglia’s Farm Wildlife Requires Set-Aside Lifeline

The RSPB has responded to Hilary Benn’s recent announcement that the Government will consult on the best way to replace the benefits of set-aside farmland for wildlife.
Nationally, corn bunting and tree sparrow are two of the most critically declining farmland bird species. The East of England, a region that holds a substantial percentage of these UK populations, is standing to loose even more from the lack of set-aside.

80% of the linnet population in the East Anglia area winters on set-aside, compared to only 1% on winter cereals. Set-aside has particularly benefited seed eating farmland birds, through putting winter stubbles back into the environment on a wide scale. 

The loss of set-aside has resulted in significantly less food available for many farmland birds through the summer and winter months.

There is an indication that the farmland bird index decline started to ameliorate after 1992 when set-aside was introduced, and that the index responded to changes in the percentage of set-aside required.

Simon Tonkin, RSPB Farmland Conservation Officer in Eastern England said, “It is essential we get some replacement for set-aside as soon as possible, so it is heartening to see that the Government is prepared to act.  However, the RSPB has serious doubts about the ability of a purely voluntary scheme to deliver what farmland birds need, which is a little land in lots of places.

Simon added, “We would rather see a smaller amount of land with the ability to deliver increased environmental benefits, than the larger areas secured previously under production led set-aside."

In the Brecks, the lack of set-aside resulted in a reduction of the un-cropped arable nesting habitat that stone-curlews require.  This resulted in a higher than normal number of interventions by the project team and farm staff in order to save nests and chicks from agricultural operations in cropped land; there were 66 interventions in 2008 compared to 39 in 2007.

Tim Cowan, RSPB Stone-curlew Project officer added “0% set-aside in place for the 2008 breeding season will lead to a reduction in breeding performance.  It means that yet another, well-managed tool for many Breckland farmers to positively help stone-curlews, has been removed.”

The kind of mandatory scheme proposed by Hilary Benn seems like a good deal for farmers, who still receive the same amount of public money, including old set-aside compensation payments, despite the loss of set-aside. The amount of land farmers would have to take out of production would be much smaller than that under set-aside and our precious farm wildlife would be thrown a lifeline.

Norfolk farmer Chris Skinner commented “As we are talking about setting aside less productive areas of farmed land or integrating management with normal crop management then there really should be no problem with introducing a small percentage to deliver environmental benefit under a mandatory cross compliance measure.   Indeed I see my farm wildlife as a crop, I can produce quality food alongside quality areas for farm wildlife.”