A year with Farming in Protected Landscapes

Defra’s investment in the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme grew this year with a significant budget increase and an extra year to deliver the programme (to March 2025). In the Surrey Hills we have continued to work at scale with a total ‘hedge count’ (new hedges planted) by Spring 2023 of over 12 km. This will be further increased over the winter this year and is expected to make a significant contribution to improving green corridors for wildlife across the landscape with the increased biodiversity that comes with it.

Some other highlights:

The fund has provided grants for equipment to help restore heathland by reducing the impact of bracken which otherwise can dominate this important habitat
Farmers have been able to purchase GPS collars for conservation grazing cattle for locations where fencing is impractical
It has been really interesting to trial some small-scale education projects on farms, giving children from communities which rarely visit the countryside a chance to visit a farm and meet the animals (and the farmer!). We have also funded facilities such as an accessible toilet to enable as many children as possible to come onto a farm
A fantastic pond restoration project which has included some beautiful educational materials to be used by schools learning about water and conservation
A number of volunteer groups have received tools to help with their conservation work at various sites across the Surrey Hills. This not only makes a huge contribution to improving habitats but also promotes the many benefits of volunteering, socially and for health and well-being

We have a big year ahead in 2024, with some really exciting projects developing including natural flood management schemes, a Care Farm pilot project, which FiPL can add value to, and working with even more farmers and land managers to help with nature recovery across the National Landscape.