Where Is 1066’s Nature: Meeting Report
On Thursday 17th October, we gathered at Ewhurst and Staplecross village hall for the first event of the autumn-winter period. Kirstie began the presentation by summarizing the political landscape around nature recovery. In response to the 2021 environment act, the government outlined for main delivery mechanism through which it intended to incentives actions for nature:
- Sustainable farming Incentive (SFI)
- Higher tier CSS
- Landscape Recovery
- Private Finance
A short discussion was had regarding how SFI had been unfolding since its initial rollout. There was strong consensus that the speed at which application were currently being processed was inadequate and frustration at the delays in the release of information regarding higher tier and endorsed actions.
With regards to the 3rd and 4th delivery mechanisms, Kirstie then delved into more detail about the what a landscape recovery bid/ project might look like and various phases involved. This was followed by a number of current examples of landscape recovery in action and the funding mechanisms that are driving these projects.
The habitat and species mapping study presented at the meeting marks the first step in the road to a potential landscape recovery bid. This first step involves figuring out what nature you already have and then using this information to explore what could be done to enhance it.
With the context of the project set, the project and its results were presented to the group. The project brief was to:
• Create a baseline habitat map of the whole group
• Map current species information for the species listed in local priority data sets
• Propose a project based on the habitat and species information
• Estimate what this project will deliver according to different metrics
Habitat Mapping Results
Some headline results of the brief were that the highest proportion of habitat for the group area was grassland at 42%, 12% of which was priority grassland. There was also a high proportion of Woodland at 15%. Of all priority habitats, floodplain was the most expansive at 20%. With regards to species, a number of hedgehog, water vole and important endangered bird species including Lap wing and Turtledove were found across the 1066 area.
For every cluster member, their farm was surveyed and species mapped. We are aiming to provide a detailed farm by farm report to be sent out to the group in due course as well as the presentation slides displayed at the meeting. In the meantime, if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask me or Kirstie.