Turning farmland into 'wildlife parks' could boost farmers post-Brexit profits, campaigners say
Converting farmland into wildlife parks could boost landowner’s profits post-Brexit, rewilding campaigners say, amid concerns over the loss of EU subsidies.
If Britain leaves the EU without a deal the farming industry could lose £850m a year in profits, according to research by Andersons, a farm business consultants.
The effects are expected to severely impact sheep farmers, which under the current EU subsidy model are “already clearly failing',' said Rob Stoneman, of Rewilding Europe.
Instead, if farmers rewild their lands, by grazing traditional herbivores such as wild cattle or deer, and allow the natural landscape to regrow, it would create opportunities for “nature tourism”, Mr Stoneman added.
“If you did that you would create a really exciting landscape, a lot more woodrows, scrub, a heck of a lot more wildlife, lots more birds, mammals, big grazers like deer and wild boar, and maybe wild cats,” Mr Stoneman said.
“That’s going to attract people in, we know that tourism is part of the global economy that is continuing to grow and of tourism the fastest part of the tourism niche is landscape, nature, activity based tourism.”
Sheep farmers are responsible for managing “80 percent” of England’s land, Mr Stoneman said.
“What happens to those hill farmers? Do we as a society just abandon them, do we let them fall to their fate?
“Let’s not abandon farming, let’s not abandon it to the fate of the market. Sheep farming isn’t economic, so what are the alternatives? Rewilding is one of those.”
Research by Newcastle University in 2017/18 calculate the average livestock or crop farm in England was operating with an Agricultural Corporate Income of -£38,795, this figure also allowed for and unpaid labour allocation of £26,320.
Derek Gow, a landowner in Devon, is in the process of rewilding 120 acres of his farm land.
Upcott Grange Farm has a captive breeding programme for wildcats, which have been extinct from England for over 100 years, as well as a herd of feral cattle.
Next year, Mr Gow will open up his farm to the public and he has already started to take bookings for tour groups.
“What we’ve got in farming today is virtually entirely reliant on subsidies, especially when you come to the upland areas, you are not farming sheep you’re farming subsidies,” Mr Gow said.
“It’s very likely there will be some rabbits pulled out of a hat post-brexit just to keep those guys in place for a time, but it’s not economic as it is, it only stacks up on the basis of large annual cash injections of public money and it doesn’t even make people happy.”
Mr Gow said he would encourage anyone to look into the possibility of rewilding their land, but emphasised it is not a “walk in the park”.
“We’ve really got to start looking at how we’re going to create a better life for people out there, and part of that could be the process of restoration of wildlands,” he said.
A Defra spokesperson said: “When we leave the EU we will maintain the same funding for farm support until the end of this Parliament and we have been clear we will intervene to provide additional support where necessary.
“We have been meeting regularly with the food and farming sectors across the UK for some time to understand and anticipate the potential impacts of a no deal scenario on our agri-food industry.
“We are making all necessary preparations to ensure our farming industry is ready and that Brexit works for farmers across all parts of the UK.”
