The East of England Grazing Forum
East of England

Breadcrumbs

East of England Grazing Forum

The Mission Statement of the Grazing Forum is "to maintain and substantially increase the percentage of grassland of conservation and landscape interest, achieving satisfactory management by grazing in an economically sustainable way."

Grazing sheep, Suffolk. Copyright Natural England/Victoria Perry

Background

The decline in the livestock industry in the East of England has lead to concerns that grassland in the region is becoming under-grazed. This is a particular issue on sites that require grazing for ecological and landscape reasons.

The Rural Development Service (RDS) began a programme of activities in the region to address undergrazing in 2003. The RDS was then joined by six organisations with an interest in this issue, to form the undergrazing project partnership.

The East of England Grazing Forum was therefore established to act as a permanent 'home' for grazing issues in the region, drawing together representatives from Industry and conservation bodies, livestock production, marketing, retail and development organisations.

The Grazing Forum is dedicated to generating actions that support the livestock industry in the region and is working to ensure correct management of the region’s grassland

The project is currently administered from the Natural England offices in Cambridge under the direction of Victoria Perry (Project Manager for Undergrazing).

List of Grazing Forum members

Objectives

  • To provide an overview of the grassland in the region, its status and condition and its potential for management by grazing.
  • To share information and best practice from within and outside the region.
  • To raise the profile of grazing management and the availability and needs of conservation grazing. In particular the need for infrastructure within the red meat industry.
  • To support the development of sustainable, market-driven solutions to the issue of under grazing.
  • To act as a focus for local grazing schemes set up at sub-regional level.
  • To input to policy and advocate changes to improve the viability of conservation grazing.
  • To encourage tourism organisations and websites to include links to places where people can see grazing animals.
  • To improve the communication between farmers, land managers and graziers leading to a higher proportion of sites in active management.

The Grazing, Landscape and Food project home