The long-term decline of meadow grassland throughout the UK over the last fifty years has led to a loss of one of the UK's most biodiverse farmland ecosystems. Nowadays, meadows have little economic rationale and have been replaced with more intensive forms of grassland management or by arable production.
In 1993 the introduction of set-aside forced arable land out of production into a number of alternate uses thus providing a real opportunity for the creation of large scale biodiverse habitats across the UK. However, the rules governing set-aside have been restrictive and this has prevented the encouragement of biodiversity on set-aside land.
The Mid Term Review of the CAP in 2003 offered scope for a fresh look at the rules and on 10th July 2003 we published our strategy for the creation of biodiverse meadow grassland.
The strategy was widely circulated and met with considerable support from conservation and farming organisations although various submissions to DEFRA received no acknowledgement. At the time the strategy recommended:
DEFRA's indifference to our proposals was subsequently reflected in the Entry Level Scheme (ELS) and the Higher Level Scheme (HLS) which contained no management options along the lines we suggested. This was a wasted opportunity. We are therefore calling on DEFRA to amend the rules to:
Allow farmers entering the ELS and HLS schemes to cut hay and graze their set-aside under a "biodiverse meadow" option, subject to restrictions, so that a matrix of biodiverse grassland can be created throughout the UK.
The following .pdf resources are available:
Strategy Document (July
2003)
Reissued Recommendations
(Dec 2005)
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