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<p>We will be introducing a new Environmental Land Management (ELM) system that will
pay land managers for delivering environmental public goods.</p><p> </p><p>The government
will work with farmers and land managers who wish to improve the environment by entering
into multi-annual ELM contracts in which land managers commit to take certain actions
to deliver environmental goods and benefits in return for funding.</p><p> </p><p>We
believe that those managing the land are best placed to decide how to deliver the
environmental benefits they have signed up to provide. We propose that land managers
should have access to the information and advice they need to enable them to develop
holistic management plans for their land.</p><p> </p><p>Evidence from previous agri-environment
schemes suggests that the effectiveness of measures and the quality of environmental
benefits can depend on the quality and extent of advice from trusted advisers. We
propose that an approved specialist adviser should be readily available to help the
land manager to deliver desirable environmental outcomes. We want land managers to
establish trusted relationships with their adviser. We are therefore exploring the
role that third party advisers could play. For example, an adviser could be an agronomist
who a farmer has worked with in the past and trusts, or an adviser from a local organisation
who can advise on local conditions. We expect that these advisers would need to be
approved to demonstrate their level of capability and to ensure sufficient protection
for the spending of public money. The appetite for existing advisers training to deliver
advice within ELM, and the market for delivering this training, is being tested through
a combination of policy development, Testing and Trials and social science involvement,
with an intelligence assessment in development.</p>
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