Image description: Two sheep looking toward a camera. Image by Pixabay.

Conservationists have launched a campaign to revoke the Lake District’s Unesco world heritage status, claiming that the illustrious title leads to sheep farming being overly prioritised, to the detriment of the natural environment.

In a letter to Unesco, Ecologist Lee Schofield argues that the designation “promotes a false perception of farming, is not economically sustainable, is working against crucial efforts to restore the natural environment and mitigate the impacts of climate change, does not help sustain farming livelihoods, is not wanted by local people and is contributing to damaging overtourism.”

The designation 

The area was given the status by the United Nations agency in 2017, celebrating the Lake District as a “cultural landscape” shaped by traditional agro-pastoral farming, with sheep farming a central part of its identity.

The Lake District was the 31st place in the UK and overseas territories to be put on the heritage list, joining the likes of the Grand Canyon, the Taj Mahal and Machu Picchu.

Support for the campaign

The campaign is backed by a report published by World Heritage Watch, co-authored by Schofield, Dr Karen Lloyd of Lancaster University and the University of Cumbria’s Prof Ian Convery. They argue that the inscription elevates sheep farming over equally traditional mixed farming that includes cattle, pigs, horses and poultry. Schofield notes that the word “sheep” appears 357 times in the Lake District’s 716-page nomination document, far exceeding mentions of other traditional livestock.

The authors calculate that the Lake District’s 673,000 sheep comprise 90% of medium-sized mammal biomass, with wild mammals representing 3%. Schofield calls sheep farming “both ecologically catastrophic and economically precarious”, linking it to the fact that only 20.7% of the Lake District’s sites of special scientific interest are in a favourable condition. Intensive sheep grazing can prevent tree regeneration, reduce biodiversity and cause erosion and compaction of soils. Schofield also argues the Unesco designation provides no financial support for the farming practices it celebrates, while, according to critics, hindering the transition to climate- and nature-positive farming that is the main focus of post-Brexit farming funds.

Criticism of Campaign

Tim Farron, Liberal Democrat MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, said losing the status would be a “hammer blow” to tourism and farming. According to the BBC about 18 million people visit the area each year, spending a total of £1.2bn and providing about 18,000 jobs. Farron said he was against the campaign and that it was a “misguided and poorly judged attack” on hill farmers.

However, Schofield counters that “we’re in a biodiversity and a climate crisis. But as important as cultural heritage might be, we’re not in a cultural heritage crisis,” Schofield says.