Natural England

Natural England welcomes the Government’s announcement that the Environmental Stewardship scheme is to remain open to new applications from 1 January 2007.

Entry Level schemes are open to all farmers and land managers. To date almost 25, 000 ELS agreements have been signed, bringing some 3.5 million hectares under environmental management.

Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) is a more targeted scheme and supports only the highest quality applications. In recent months, however, Natural England has supported a significant increase in agreement numbers for HLS, bringing the number of HLS agreements to almost 1000, covering over 65 000 hectares.

Welcoming the government’s announcement, Helen Phillips, Natural England’s Chief Executive said: “Environmental Stewardship is fundamental to Natural England's work to secure a healthier agricultural landscape and helps meet the Government's environmental Public Service Agreement targets. We will strive to make it a sound business choice for farmers.

“Farmers in their thousands have already signed up to manage their land in an environmentally friendly way. The management options offered under Environmental Stewardship are essential to maintain the landscape and its value for wildlife and people”.

Entry Level, Higher Level and Organic Stewardship schemes will remain open to new applications although the agreements will be provisional pending the approval of the new Rural Development Programme. This means that agreements might have to be amended in light of any changes that come out of the approval process.

The existing agreement holders are unaffected provided their agreement was signed before the end of 2006.

In return for long-term commitment to environmental management, over £65 million has been paid to land managers since the launch of Environmental Stewardship in March 2005.

ENDS

For further information please contact the Natural England press office on 0117 910 2919 or 01242 533306.

Notes for Editors:

1. Natural England took over responsibility for the delivery of Environmental Stewardship from the Rural Development Service on 1 October 2006.

2. Environmental Stewardship was launched on 3 March 2005. It is composed of three tiers:

• Entry Level Stewardship (ELS), a whole farm scheme which aims to encourage farmers and land managers across England to deliver simple but effective environmental management;
• Organic Entry Level Stewardship (OELS), which is open to farmers who manage all or part of their land organically;
• Higher Level Stewardship (HLS), which, when combined with ELS or OELS options, aims to deliver significant environmental benefits in high priority areas.

3. Environmental Stewardship builds on the very best practice already evident in British farming. In particular, it takes forward Defra's two flagship agri-environment schemes, Environmentally Sensitive Areas and Countryside Stewardship. The primary objectives of the new scheme are to:

• Conserve wildlife (biodiversity).
• Maintain and enhance landscape quality and character.
• Protect the historic environment and natural resources.
• Promote public access and understanding of the countryside.
.
• Natural resource protection.

4. Environmental Stewardship (ES), is one of the Schemes which operate under the England Rural Development Programme (ERDP). The scheme replaced the Countryside Stewardship, Environmentally Sensitive Areas and Organic Farming Schemes, which are now closed to new applicants.

5. Further information concerning Environmental Stewardship is available on www.naturalengland.org.uk.

6. Figures as of 6 December 2006

LIVE AGREEMENTS:

Region	ELS LIVE	OELS LIVE	HLS LIVE*	OHLS LIVE
EM	3,375	69	86	5
E	3,592	73	90	9
LONDON	26	0	0	0
NE	1,191	41	76	3
NW	2,454	72	134	4
SE	2,334	136	156	19
SW	5,534	592	206	30
WM	3,112	131	205	19
Y and H	3,308	64	77	3
TOTAL	24,926	1,178	1,030	92

* HLS/OHLS agreement figures are recorded on Genesis as agreement finalised.

AREA UNDER AGREEMENT:

Region	ELS (Ha)*	OELS (Ha)*	HLS (Ha)**	OHLS (Ha)**
EM	562,675	10,541	5,203	443
E	704,069	18,259	6,353	594
LONDON	2,828	0	0	0
NE	222,950	10,045	15,272	230
NW	231,365	7,501	7,732	326
SE	424,832	24,725	11,047	1,437
SW	559,697	73,060	9,575	2,297
WM	369,757	17,222	9,318	919
Y and H	466,038	6,692	5,066	104
TOTAL	3,544,210	168,045	69,567	6,349

* The (O)ELS figure represents the total area entered into (O)ELS in both (O)ELS and (O)ELSHLS agreements.

* * The HLS/OHLS figures represent the area under HLS/OHLS options only.