Toolkit to Help Farmers Access Financial Support
We have developed the first grassland-specific toolkit to help farmers restore more species-rich grasslands and access alternative forms of finance.
Species-rich grasslands can deliver enormous benefits for wildlife, biodiversity and the climate. With approximately 97% of the UK’s species-rich grassland lost in less than a century, we are working with farmers to protect and restore them.
Supporting smaller farms, with less resources, is a great opportunity to support food production and the restoration of grassland.
In this project, we led partners in creating a toolkit with funding from the Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund (NEIRF) to complete the ‘Realising grassland potential: an ecosystems services toolkit for farmers’ project.
What is the project?
In this project, developed the first grassland-specific ecosystem services toolkit, with a focus on smaller farms. It explored the types of grass, soil, grazing and cutting regimes and provided farmers with advice on how to engage effectively with emerging private finance opportunities – to help their transition to a more regenerative grassland management approach.
Smaller farms produce significantly lower farm business incomes, which can be a barrier to engaging in the nature market as they don’t have the resources to pay for surveys and planning. So, this toolkit provides an accessible tool to help farmers make informed decisions.
Through this, we also showcased how species-rich grassland can deliver ecosystem services.
What will the impact be?
A mechanism, like this toolkit, will help more people understand the importance of species-rich grassland as a source of ecosystem services. It will also support farmers to more easily access funding to protect, restore, create and manage this valuable habitat.
We also hope the project will lead to greater recognition of the important role farming can play in maintaining the ecosystem functions of grasslands.
We will also be working with farmers to understand their concerns, ambitions and considerations for land use. This toolkit was piloted by farmers in England, which we will continue to monitor and support.
For an update on this project, please read here.
We worked in partnership to produce this toolkit with our partners Floodplain Meadows Partnership, Finance Earth, National Landscape Association and Pasture for Life. Advisory partners in the project include Nature Friendly Farming Network, Soil Association, Soil Association Exchange, Natural England and UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.
Transforming Britain’s Road Verges
UK, Grassland
Meadow Makers
England, Grassland
Local Councils and No Mow May
UK, Grassland