Another Nature Recovery Strategy

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Ellice Hahne (Sherborne)

Last month I attended the CLA breakfast at the Gillingham and Shaftesbury show, which is co-hosted by Woolley & Wallis and Battens.  This year’s guest speakers were Amy Smith and Bridget Betts, who presented Dorset’s Nature Reccovery Strategy and how it will be implemented by the “Nature Recovery Dorset” project.

While the project still seems in its infancy, these were my two takeaways.

  • There will be an opportunity for farmers who are already helping to restore nature (for example by planting wildflower strips, restoring hedges, preventing run-off or reducing nutrient inputs) to sign up to the portal.  This will put them on a map, give them an information pack and a plaque, and allow them to use the Nature Recovery Dorset logo on their website.  This is a great way to celebrate ways in which farmers are already preserving the environment, and can be an extra selling point for anyone selling directly to customers on farm.
  • There will also be an opportunity to put land forward for a longer term nature recovery strategy. This will not be restrictive and will not force you to make any changes if you do change your mind.  Signing up to it could for example be beneficial if you are planning to sell biodiversity net gain (BNG) credits, as aligning with the strategy can, in simple terms, boost the “quality” of your credits.

The Nature Recovery Dorset project seems slightly unclear for now, but this can be an opportunity for farmers to showcase all the work they are already doing for nature, instead of always being blamed for any pollution issues.

The portal to put your land forward as high opportunity area will be open from 19th of August to 30th of September.

There will also be an information farm walk on the 10th of September.  If you would like to attend, please register with LNRS@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk.

Each council nationwide is putting a strategy in place to meet future Government Environmental Targets.  If you would like to explore this further, do not hesitate to get in touch with Ellice at ellicehahne@fcgagric.com or your local FCG Office, in terms of finding out what your local council is doing.

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