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New report reveals that nature-friendly farming budget is inadequate to meet climate and nature targets
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New report reveals that UK Government must significantly increase nature-friendly farming budget to meet climate and nature targets
RSPB, National Trust and The Wildlife Trusts call for long-term investment to future proof British farming and support nature recovery
Benefits of nature-friendly farming include less pollution, less chemicals, natural pest control and more wildlife, including pollinating insects
New economic analysis, published today, demonstrates that the current agricultural budget is significantly less than what is required for the UK farm and land management sector to help tackle the nature and climate crisis.
The independent analysis – A Scale of Need – commissioned by RSPB, National Trust and The Wildlife Trusts, finds that increasing investment in nature-friendly farming to £5.9 billion per annum across the UK is essential to meet legally binding nature and climate targets, and improve the resilience of the UK farming industry. The current annual agricultural budget is £3.5 billion – which remains unchanged since 2013 – and approximately 20-25% is currently spent on agri-environment schemes that benefit nature.
Building on previous analyses the updated report gives the most accurate assessment to date of the level of widespread investment required. The new figures include, for the first time, analysis of different farm types across the UK and the variable costs of nature restoration across different sectors and sizes of farms.
RSPB, National Trust and The Wildlife Trusts are now calling on the new UK Government to increase the overall agricultural budget, and for the UK and devolved governments to then increase investment in nature-friendly farming. This will also pave the way for private finance to further bolster the budget.
The charities are also insisting that environmental schemes supporting nature and climate friendly farming must be delivered at sufficient scale to meet the challenges ahead.
Furthermore, the charities say that that for every pound of public money spent on nature restoration, the return will be at least three times that investment.
