Farm environment campaign drives forward

A major campaign to protect and enhance the eastern region’s countryside has a new coordinator.

Elizabeth Ranelagh will work with farmers to meet targets set for the Campaign for the Farmed Environment.

The campaign aims to fend of the threat of a compulsory set-aside replacement by encouraging more farmers to adopt Entry-Level Stewardship, implementing management options that promote wildlife and farmland birds.

Already well known in the region after eight years working as conservation adviser for the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG), Mrs Ranelagh will continue to be employed by the charity while she takes on her new role.

“It is going to be a challenge but a very stimulating and exciting one. I have already seen the good work that many farmers are carrying out on their land and I’m convinced they are ready to support the campaign,” she said.

“It’s a question of harnessing their enthusiasm and interest and demonstrating that it is not hard to get involved. Choosing the right land management practices in the right places can make a major difference to the environment.”

The campaign is led by the NFU and the Country Land and Business Association, working in partnership with organisations including the Environment Agency, FWAG, Natural England and the RSPB.

The campaign will target land managers in England’s main arable growing areas, especially the eastern region counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk.

Each county has a local liaison group. Mrs Ranelagh said her first priority would be to work with county groups on a programme of farm events to spread the campaign’s key messages.

FWAG will be appointing an assistant coordinator to work with Mrs Ranelagh A FWAG adviser will work to support the campaign in each county.