What’s happened in the past?
Like much of the country Llŷn's beauty and tranquillity conceal the underlying pressures that challenge the long-term viability of the natural environment - pollution, climate change, and an intensification of farming.
One commonly used method of encouraging farmers and land managers to sustain and increase wildlife has been through government funded agri-environmental schemes. These schemes pay farmers to undertake specific actions for habitats and historic features on their farms. They can be quite prescriptive and inflexible and they have mixed success.
Overall, current agri-environment schemes in Wales have not reversed the declines in wildlife. The general feeling within the farming community is that they are unable to use their knowledge of the land to any great effect and are not empowered to make strides towards helping nature.
A different approach
Greater success has been seen in some of our European neighbouring countries through the adoption of an outcome based approach to payments.
This type of scheme offers payments based on the desired outcomes for habitats or species, rather than specific actions, and places the decision making in the hands of the farmer.
We are testing this new way of encouraging, supporting and empowering our tenants to take a nature friendly farming approach; working closely with them to help their farms become richer in nature without depleting or damaging natural resources.
Trialling payment for outcomes
The Payment for Outcomes (PFO) trial is a collaborative project jointly funded by the National Trust and Welsh Government as an SMS, with assistance from Gwynedd Council. It is an innovative whole farm approach, looking to find ways in which farming can be more environmentally and economically sustainable on Llŷn.
We believe a farmer led initiative has real value in helping us achieve healthy, resilient landscapes that are rich in wildlife. Critically, the farmers will decide the actions they undertake, learn from experience and have more control over the condition of their land and the resultant payment.
The Llŷn peninsula, in North West Wales is one of two places (the other being Malham in the Yorkshire Dales) to trial this approach. By working with our tenants to develop a payment for outcome model we aim to help inform the future policy of farming support in the Welsh and UK government.
More information is available: Farming for the Future on Llŷn – Payments for Outcomes Project (PDF / 1.5MB) download
The ‘outcome’ on Llŷn
We’ll be focussing on how we can get the coastal slopes and heathland habitats into better shape within the Llŷn Special Area of Conservation. We want to see the neighbouring fields more flower-rich and attractive to insects and birds, with a softer transition to productive, sustainably managed land that helps support the farming system.
At Cwrt in Aberdaron the nearby species rich churchyard of St Hywyn has been used as a donor site to help with the first steps in improving an existing hay meadow providing a good source of green hay and yellow rattle.
