‘Angling Trust calls for well-resourced enforcement and monitoring in response to Defra’s consultation on the Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS)

05 August 2020

For over forty years, the EU Commons Agricultural Policy (CAP) has directed how land is farmed and managed in the UK. The departure from the EU and CAP gives us the opportunity to redesign agricultural policy to ensure farming practices continue to produce food for the table, but put in place practices that will protect and enhance the environment and provide ‘public goods’. These ‘goods’ are benefits that the environment can provide which help us all, such as clean water, good air quality and natural flood protection. …

With a mere 14% of English rivers in ‘good’ ecological status in 2016, and agricultural pressures a main factor preventing improvements, an overhaul of land management is long overdue. Freshwater environments are impacted by any activity that occurs within their catchment. Thus, the only way to reverse degradation of our rivers and lakes is through improving land management, reducing sediment and nutrient run off, and improving water retention within upland areas. The Angling Trust are generally supportive of the ELMs proposal and welcome the greater recognition that has been given to include the environment in land management.

ELM scheme presents a substantial opportunity for a step-change in our management of the landscape, to reverse environmental degradation and work towards improving the quality and quantity of our waters. However, to ensure that ELMS does not represent a replacement of past payment schemes such as Basic Payments or Entry Level Stewardship, clearer, stronger objectives need to be laid out and backed up by adequate financial incentives and support, and enforcement and monitoring to ensure environmental outcomes are met. Only through this approach can ELMS ensure that both farming and nature survive and thrive together. In our response to the consultation we highlighted some key areas that the government will need to incorporate for real transformative change to occur. For ELMS to be a success the Angling trust set out a number of tests.

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