HILL farmers, commoners and graziers are invited to a free event on Thursday, December 9 at the Two Bridges Hotel on Dartmoor to find out how they can benefit from a new payment scheme for moorlands, being announced by Defra this week.

From 2021 the area-based Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) in England is being phased out. And being replaced, over the next seven years, by three new payment systems based on environmental outcomes and public goods.

Julia Aglionby, executive director of the Foundation for Common Land, will be speaking at the event which is being organised by the Our Upland Commons Project.

It’s a three-year, £3m 25 partner strong project helping to secure the future of upland commons in Dartmoor, the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and Shropshire Hills – led by the Foundation for Common Land.

The free event starts at 7pm with a brief overview of the project in Dartmoor by the local project officer.

Julia Aglionby will then explain Defra’s Moorland and Rough Grazing Sustainable Farm Incentive (SFI22), how to apply and use the scheme to support common land and commoning. It will include an introduction to mapping options and assessing assets followed by a group discussion and a question and answer session.

‘With Defra’s policy for the sustainable farming incentive still under development, it’s a frustrating time for all, said Julia Aglionby, who is also a practicing rural chartered surveyor and chair of the Upland Alliance.

‘Of particular interest to upland hill farmers is what’s happening to them and they’ve been waiting a long time to find out.’

‘Defra will be providing more details this month and this event will be one of the earliest opportunities for farmers to find out what they need to be doing and how they can benefit.

‘All land above the “moorland line” is eligible and commons associations will be able to apply including those already in stewardship schemes. It is important to think of this as an introductory standard to plan for the future not a scheme to replace BPS.’

The common land and upland farming champion, who lives on a family farm in Cumbria, said England’s most loved and visited places are commons.

‘They provide more public benefits per area of land than almost any other type of land and have been managed in a unique way that dates back before the Vikings,” she adds.

‘It’s really important that upland farmers claim what they are entitled to for managing these iconic places. The world is changing very fast and we all need to be informed and well prepared to grasp all opportunities to help our businesses and countryside thrive in this time of uncertainty.’

In 2021 just 3% (400,000 hectares) of England remains as common land: land owned by one person over which others, ‘the commoners’, have rights including to graze livestock. Importantly all common land is open access so we all have rights for recreation on foot.

To book onto Getting Ready for ELM - SFI22 Moorland on Commons visit the Eventbrite booking page at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/getting-ready-for-elm-sfi22-moorland-on-commons-dartmoor-registration-216261994447?aff=erelpanelorg

Or email Tamsin Thomas, the Dartmoor project officer at [email protected]

To find out more about the Our Upland Commons project, visit the Foundation for Common Land website: foundationforcommonland.org.uk.

The project has been made possible by funding from National Lottery players, grants from Esmée Fairbairn and Garfield Weston Foundations, South West Water, the Duchy of Cornwall, the Dartmoor Preservation Association and Devon Wildlife Trust, amongst others.