Our views on land and farming

Redmire Wood showing autumn colours with sheep grazing in the foreground — Autumn colour at Redmire Wood, North Yorkshire | © National Trust Images/Peter Katic

We were formed to look after places of historic interest and natural beauty for the benefit of everyone. That includes nearly 260,000 hectares of land we are proud to care for across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

We want the land in our care to be a model for how to offer the best for both nature and people, and we’re working with others to do the same beyond our boundaries.

Our ambitions for the land in our care

Today, we’re facing new challenges. Climate change and the loss of nature represent the biggest risks to the planet and to our quality of life.

We’re already feeling the effects of a changing climate, and we need to adapt our land and the ways we manage it to be resilient to hotter temperatures and extreme weather. The UK's wildlife is also in danger. According to the report State of Nature 2023, the abundance of species studied in the UK has declined by 19 per cent on average since records began in 1970. It also found that nearly one in six species in Britain are under threat of extinction.

How we’re playing our part

The National Trust’s Strategy to 2035 sets a bold ambition to restore nature – not just on National Trust land, but everywhere. We’re working to end unequal access to nature, beauty and history, and to inspire more people to care and take action.

By 2035 we'll:

work with others and on the land in our care to create 250,000 hectares of thriving, nature-rich land;
influence and inspire society to care for a more climate-positive future.

By 2050 we aim to:

have enabled nature to flourish and adapted important sites to meet the challenges of climate change;
have played our part in the UK reaching net zero and creating a resilient climate-positive economy and society.

We can’t achieve these goals alone, and we’re committed to working with others across our land to make change happen. This includes working with neighbours and partners to restore nature faster across larger scales; exploring new relationships with governments to develop the right policies and find new financial models; helping to grow skills and creating opportunities for new farming entrants; and collaborating with research organisations.

Tenant farmers, graziers and common rights holders farming National Trust land have a vital role to play. We’re working with them to deliver nature renewal alongside wider benefits such as enhanced access for visitors, flood protection, and care for historic features, as well as the production of good, sustainable food.

As we work together to create a thriving countryside, we’re continuing to learn from farmers who are already making nature and climate-friendly choices and we’re sharing that knowledge to help others learn too.

A Highland cow with large horns looking into the camera at Lyme Park — A Highland cow at Lyme Park, Cheshire | © National Trust Images/Nick Garbutt

The need for support

Farmers need to be rewarded properly for the action they take to support nature and capture carbon.

We believe that UK Governments need to direct significantly more money towards ensuring its nature and climate goals are met, and to help farming become environmentally sustainable, resilient and successful.

We’ve teamed up with farming and nature groups to support a farming consensus on how food, farming and nature can go hand-in-hand. Our Scale of Need Research, undertaken with the Wildlife Trusts and RSPB suggests more than £3 billion a year in additional funding is needed for farming and nature for the next ten years. This is a significant amount, and something we are advocating for.

Read the Scale of Need report

Governments in England, Wales and Northern Ireland can help by ensuring that new agri-environment schemes are adequately resourced and well designed. These schemes need to incentivise ambitious actions and offer a full and fair reward in return for farmers and land managers playing their part in nature’s recovery and delivering other public goods.

Adopting nature-friendly, low-carbon farming can also contribute to profitable business. Research shows that some farms can become more profitable by finding the right balance of inputs such as fertiliser, feed and labour, and outputs such as improved soil quality, nature and food.

The farming community faces significant challenges – responding to huge inflationary challenges, changing consumer choices and public needs, and adjusting to the new intentions for agriculture and the environment from UK governments.

We’ll continue to work with policymakers and governments, other charities, and with the farming community to learn and support each other and make sure farmers have the tools and support they need to deliver transformational change for nature and the climate, as well as produce fantastic food that people can afford to eat. The choice isn't nature or food, we need both.