Defra has today published a report by Eunomia on a pilot Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) project undertaken from 2014 – 2015 in the West of England.

The project – one of five funded by Defra under its third round of PES Pilot projects – investigated the potential of changes in land management to tackle soil erosion, reduce flood risk, and deliver a range of other benefits, such as enhanced biodiversity, within the 17km² Winford Brook catchment, to the south of Bristol.

Recommendations made in the report concern:

• The way in which PES projects could best work alongside existing agri-environment schemes, and the potential to use Countryside Stewardship funding to top-up PES funds;
• Facilitating access to government held landholding data for organisations wishing to implement PES schemes; and
• Ways in which to secure the engagement of multiple beneficiaries in specific catchments.

Eunomia led a consortium of organisations including Bristol Water, Wessex Water, the Avon Wildlife Trust Consultancy (AWT) and TLT Solicitors. The project gained support from the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership and the West of England Nature Partnership. The project partners worked closely with the Environment Agency, Natural England, Bath & North East Somerset Council, and North Somerset Council. Click here for the link:

http://www.eunomia.co.uk/defra-publishes-eunomia-payments-for-ecosystem-services-report/