| CONSERVATION - FARMER CLUSTERS
The super Farmer Cluster
Peter Thompson looks at the launch of a new super Cluster after the success of the Farmer Clusters, where working together, farmers can deliver more for wildlife on a much bigger scale
F
ollowing Sir John Lawton’s 2010 report Making Space for Nature in which he stated that wildlife habitats should be “bigger, better and joined”, the GWCT helped farmers set up a Nature Improvement Area (NIA) in the Marlborough Downs to test this landscape scale approach to conservation. It was the only farmer-led group out of the 12 NIAs created, and proved to be a very successful pilot scheme. This encouraged the Trust to find out if this same ‘bottom-up’ process of working alongside a group of farmers on a landscape scale would work without the large pot of money that backed up the NIAs. Would farmers have the same enthusiasm to work together if they only had the normal everyday funding streams available to all land managers? Would there be the same improvement in soil, water and biodiversity? Natural England (NE) funded the GWCT to test this. We helped to set up five ‘Farmer Clusters’, as they
22 | GAMEWISE • SUMMER 2017
became known, to assess the capacity for an overall gain in biodiversity from a number of farmers voluntarily working together, at the landscape-scale (rather than as separate farms), devising their own conservation plans, supplementing but underpinning existing agri- environment schemes and facilitated by an experienced advisor chosen by them.
To cut a long story short, farmers very quickly understood the benefits gained by joining forces to manage the countryside and showed huge enthusiasm for the task ahead. However, it became apparent that a good co-ordinator or facilitator was key to the success of the group achieving positive momentum, mainly because farmers are all busy people and the demands of running a business can easily get in the way. A facilitator’s role might include organising meetings and training workshops; ensuring that conservation efforts are co-ordinated and delivered on time; undertaking wildlife
Peter Thompson is our biodiversity advisor and an expert on farmland habitat and wildlife. A fi nalist in the Farmers Weekly advisor awards, he is a specialist on agri- environment schemes.
(Top) Farmers showed huge enthusiasm for Farmer Clusters and joining forces.
www.gwct.org.uk/fcc
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