Natural England - Wildlife Enhancement Scheme

Wildlife Enhancement Scheme

The Wildlife Enhancement Scheme (WES) was introduced as a pilot scheme in 1991, and was a management agreement scheme for Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), to positively maintain and enhance their special interest by combining Natural England’s knowledge of wildlife management with the owner or occupier’s skills and knowledge of the land.

The scheme has now closed to new applicants, and Higher Level Stewardship is now the main scheme used to support the management of SSSIs. The majority of the existing agreements will have expired by 2012. As part of a five-year agreement, payments were offered for annual management (such as for grazing, hay cutting or water level management) and/or for capital works to maintain or restore habitats (for example scrub clearance) or works to support particular species.

Existing WES agreements will gradually transfer across to Higher Level Stewardship, which will become the primary channel for funding the delivery of SSSI target condition. For those sites that are not eligible to enter Higher Level Stewardship there is a new scheme called the Conservation and Enhancement Scheme, which will be used mainly for geological/geomorphological and freshwater/marine SSSIs.

What are the benefits of the scheme?

The Wildlife Enhancement Scheme was available to support conservation management on all SSSIs in England, although WES management agreements were primarily targeted at those sites in unfavourable condition and were therefore offered at Natural England’s discretion.

WES management agreements played an important role in helping to sucessfully deliver the Government's target of having 95% of SSSIs in favourable or recovering condition by the end of 2010.