Greening and Agri-environment

Greening Shift

DEFRA appear to be executing a subtle change of approach when it comes to ‘greening’.  This has seen a swing away from the idea of ‘ELS-lite’ being the greening option in England (see December Bulletin) and back towards using the three ‘default’ greening measures set out in the EU legislation. 

It is recognised that picking some of the land management options currently contained in the ELS would deliver better environmental outcomes than the three standard EU measures of crop rotation, permanent pasture retention and Ecological Focus Areas (EFAs).  An ELS-lite might also be more focused and less disruptive in terms of its impact on farming output.  However, it seems that DEFRA has growing concerns of how such a scheme might work in practice.  Firstly, it is not clear how far the concept of ‘equivalence’ will allow alternative greening models to stray from the EU standard – there may not be as much flexibility as DEFRA would need.  This leads into the problem of ‘disallowance’ – DEFRA being fined if its schemes are either not seen to be fully equivalent, or not administered correctly.  Administration of the ELS-lite is seen as more complex and therefore more dangerous than the standard greening model.

No decision has yet been made, and DEFRA may yet decide to still go its own way on greening.  However, the likelihood of using the EU measures does seem to be growing – perhaps just with some national ‘tweaks’, probably in the rules on EFAs.   

Future Agri-Environment Schemes

Even if elements of the ELS do not get incorporated into greening, this does not mean that the ELS scheme will necessarily continue beyond 2013.  It is increasingly likely that the ELS will not be available after this year.

We wrote in the February Bulletin about the ‘New Environmental Land Management Scheme’ (NELMS) project which is looking at the agri-environmental support which will be in place under the next Rural Development Programme (RDP) to 2020.  A formal consultation on the whole RDP is expected in the autumn, but there will be informal engagement with the industry over the summer.  Of course, the scheme is being designed against a background of sharply reduced Rural Development funding, which is concentrating minds on achieving best value for money from any programme.   There are some clear themes and issues now starting to emerge from the NELMS process;

• there is much talk of better targeting within any new scheme.  This means that the focus will be on set geographical areas that are believed to have the most potential to deliver environmental benefits.  This could mean that some farmers and landowners in the ‘wrong’ place simply will not be able to access schemes.  When questioned about having such ‘white-space’ on the map DEFRA seem relaxed about it. 
• the idea is that the next agri-environmental programme will be ‘transitional’ – it is recognised that there may not be such a large area of land under agri-environmental schemes in future.  The aim is that, gradually, there will be more diverse sources of funding for land management.  The great hope, and flavour-of-the-month, seems to be Payment for Ecosystems (PES) – see March Bulletin for details.  We have our doubts over how many instances there might be where the market will pay for changes in land management.  The other issue driving change is the concern that policy-makers have got themselves on a ‘treadmill’, where payments have been made to change land management, but then they keep continuing over the years as theland is rolled from one scheme to the next.
• the scheme design would be familiar with a menu-based approached.  It may well build on the ELS model and allocate points per option.  Rather than tiers of levels (ELS and HLS) there may well be a graduated or ‘ladder’ approach.  Simplistically, the more points achieved, the further up the ladder and the higher the payments.  However, the bottom of the ladder seems likely to begin at a level well above the current ELS.
• there will be a big focus on ‘landscape-scale’ approach in the new scheme.  This means that groups of land managers will be encouraged to come together to apply for funding – this is thought to deliver far better outcomes than single-farm schemes.  It is not yet clear how this might be incentivised, but there could be a points uplift for those participating in group schemes.  There may be funding for facilitating such groups.
• other funding streams such as woodland grants and Catchment Sensitive grants are likely to be combined into one scheme.  Advice (such as the previous ETIP) scheme, will become more integral to the scheme.  Indeed, it is possible that people will not be accepted into any scheme without an element of advice.
• there will be more focus on water quality, soils and resource protection in new schemes.
• with the end of the ELS as we know it, the OELS and UELS are likely to close to new applicants too.  Support for upland farmers will come through a ‘package’ of measures (see April Bulletin).  There seems an increasingly good chance that this will include higher Basic Payments through a merger of the SDA and lowland regions. 
• the idea is that NELMS (or the final name chosen) will be launched in 2015.  This would mean a 1^st Jan 2016 start date for new agreements.

We have previously spoken about transitional measures for agri-environmental schemes (see April Bulletin).  There is a desire to ‘protect what is of value‘, so we believe that new HLS schemes may well be offered in the 2014 year – especially to those coming out of CSS or ESA agreements.  Some of these people may even be offer ELS agreements if they don’t qualify for the HLS.  UELS is also likely to continue through 2014 until the new hill support arrangements start.  However, we discern no great enthusiasm for offering ELS very widely in 2014.  Existing agreements will carry-on for their lifespan of course, but the ‘broad-and-shallow’ experiment looks set to come to an end for most new applicants from this autumn.