March 24, 2005
Natural England - new name for soon to be merged agencies
Today (23 March 2005) Margaret Beckett, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs announced that the new agency will be called Natural England.
Natural England – for people, places and nature.
Last year, the Government announced its intention to merge, by 2007, English Nature, the access, recreation and landscapes elements of the Countryside Agency, and the agri-environment parts of the Rural Development Service into a new independent agency, which will focus on improved environmental land management.
Sir Martin Doughty, Chair of English Nature, said: "We're excited to come together in Natural England. It's a natural partnership and it makes sense to bring together all the different services we provide to look after the natural environment under one roof. Unifying the three organisations will ensure we have one strong voice speaking out for the needs of rural, urban, maritime and coastal areas. Joining access with nature conservation and landscape will help create wonderful new opportunities for people to get out and enjoy themselves."
Posted by Surfbirds at 06:19 AM | Comments (0)
March 04, 2005
Environmental Stewardship: great news for the countryside
The Government's new Environmental Stewardship scheme, launched today 3 March, is great news for the countryside. For the first time ALL farmers and land managers can be paid for looking after wildlife, landscapes and natural resources for everyone to enjoy.
Environmental Stewardship was jointly welcomed by John Adams, Chief Executive of the Rural Development Service, Dr Andy Brown, English Nature's Chief Executive and Dr Stuart Burgess, the Countryside Agency's Chairman.
They said "We are delighted with this exciting new scheme and hope that most farmers and land managers will join Environmental Stewardship to improve environmental quality across the whole of the farmed landscape. Scheme options will pay them to improve their management, for example of hedges and field margins, to benefit landscapes and wildlife."
The new scheme has three elements: Entry Level Stewardship, Organic Entry Level Stewardship and Higher Level Stewardship. The latter will reward farmers and land managers who undertake more ambitious environmental management in key target areas.
English Nature is happy that Higher Level Stewardship will be targeted on the highest quality areas, particularly Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Significantly, the scheme asks farmers to deliver agreed results rather than prescribing rigid management. The Countryside Agency is pleased that Higher Level Stewardship will encourage new permissive access to join up other Rights of Way and open access land so that more people can see for themselves the benefits which the new scheme will bring.
The Rural Development Service, English Nature and the Countryside Agency have worked together closely on the development of the new scheme, which will be delivered by the Rural Development Service working with English Nature, Countryside Agency and other organisations and agencies. It is a major step forward for us and we are now working in partnership towards developing a single and improved integrated agency.
Elements of the Environmental Stewardship scheme include:
Entry Level Stewardship that will pay farmers for basic environmental management. It is hoped it will cover the majority of English farmland, thereby helping to tackle countrywide problems such as loss of landscape character, biodiversity and pollution of rivers.
Organic Entry Level Stewardship that will pay for activity similar to that under the Entry Level Scheme but give farmers higher payments, in recognition of the added environmental benefits of organic farming.
Higher Level Stewardship, that will pay farmers for more ambitious environmental management. Applications will be competitive and funding will be targeted to the most environmentally important and sensitive areas.
The scheme is designed to address a wider range of issues than previous schemes. New areas include - protection of water and soil, careful use of pesticides, preservation of rare traditional breeds and flood management.
Environmental Stewardship replaces the Countryside Stewardship, Environmentally Sensitive Areas and Organic Farming schemes. Together, the Countryside Stewardship and Environmentally Sensitive Areas schemes currently cover more than 11% of English farmland.
Further Information
Information about the Environmental Stewardship scheme can be found at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/erdp/schemes
Information about 'permissive access routes' created under the scheme can be found at: http://countrywalks.defra.gov.uk/
Information and Environmental Stewardship: putting nature on the map can be found at www.english-nature.org.uk and Nature on the map is at www.natureonthemap.org.uk
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RSPB article: http://www.rspb.org.uk/countryside/...e/els/index.asp
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BBC Web Site article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4315233.stm
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Eastern Daily Press article: http://new.edp24.co.uk/content/news/story.aspx?brand=EDPOnline&category=News&tBrand=edponline&tCategory=news&itemid=NOED01%20Mar%202005%2021%3A30%3A59%3A360
Posted by Surfbirds at 06:30 AM | Comments (0)