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<p>(a)</p><p> </p><p>The Government is supporting a number of initiatives to create
wilder landscapes across England, as part of a broader approach to nature recovery
through projects such as peatland restoration funding or agri-environment schemes.
However, rewilding is not appropriate in all situations, and we must balance priorities
including food production.</p><p> </p><p>Landscape Recovery (LR) is an environmental
land management (ELM) scheme which seeks to demonstrate the capacity for large-scale
nature recovery and sustainable food production to take place in parallel. LR is for
landowners and managers who want to take a more large-scale, long-term approach to
producing environmental and climate goods on their land. It funds ambitious landscape-scale
projects through bespoke, long-term agreements lasting 20 years or more. Initially,
projects are awarded a project development grant to gather further information on
the outcomes of the projects and financing options. Following this, projects will
sign an Implementation Agreement, setting out the details of the project and what
will be delivered. The implementation phase will then begin from 2024 onwards, with
agreed funding from the Government and the private sector.</p><p> </p><p>(b)</p><p>
</p><p>In the Agricultural Transition Plan of November 2020, the Government announced
ELM schemes, designed to help England’s farmers enhance their efficiency, productivity
and environmental sustainability. This move from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy
is the most significant reform of agricultural policy and spending in England in decades.</p><p>
</p><p>Sustainable food production and caring for the environment can and must go
hand in hand. Our ELM schemes will ensure our long-term food security by investing
in the foundations of food production: healthy soil, water and biodiverse ecosystems.
They have been developed so that there is an offer for all farm types, including for
tenant farmers.</p><p> </p><p>The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) pays farmers
for actions that support food production and can help improve farm productivity and
resilience, while protecting and improving the environment. It is being rolled out
incrementally, with the full offer available by the end of 2024. It is straightforward
for farmers to apply and manage their agreement, and they will receive quarterly payments.
We will also pay a new SFI management payment to recognise the administrative costs
for farmers entering into and managing an SFI agreement.</p><p> </p><p>Countryside
Stewardship (CS) pays farmers and land managers to look after and improve the environment
in specific habitats, features and local areas on their land. There will be an extra
incentive through CS Plus for land managers to join up across local areas to deliver
bigger and better results. We are improving the way CS operates, including expanding
and refining the scope of the scheme, simplifying processes and making inspections
fairer and more proportionate. We have increased the payment rates of CS in response
to rising input costs.</p><p> </p><p>Farmers and land managers can be in the SFI and
CS at the same time, so long as we are not paying for the same actions twice on the
same land and the actions are compatible.</p>
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