Photo from the Axe Landscape Partnership, with permission from Randall Photos
I'm pleased to share the 34 successful projects in the second round of Landscape Recovery.
This £25 million round will fund 12 more projects than the previous round, demonstrating our commitment to funding that delivers environmental benefits in harmony with food production.
The focus of this round is net zero, protected sites, and wildlife-rich habitats.
Together, the projects involve over 700 farmers and landowners working with their communities to support over 200,000 hectares across England.
They will:
- restore more than 35,000 hectares of peatland
- sustainably manage more than 20,000 hectares of woodland
- create over 7,000 hectares of woodland, including some temperate rainforest
- benefit more than 160 protected sites, which include Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs).
Successful projects
The second round Landscape Recovery projects are:
- Arlington Estate nature recovery and connection to Exmoor
- Brit Catchment Recovery Project
- Brock and Calder Landscape Recovery Project
- Calder and Colne Landscape Links (CCaLL)
- Central Dartmoor Landscape Recovery
- Denton Park Estate
- Greater Sedgemoor Landscape Recovery Project (GSLRP)
- Habitat enhancement & connectivity in Gainsborough & Constable Country
- Hadrian's Wall Wetland - Landscape Recovery
- Heart of the Dales
- Heaths to Sea: Landscape recovery of the lower Otter Valley
- High Peak Nature Recovery
- Landscape Recovery in the Lower Chew
- Lincoln and Witham Valley Farming and Nature Network (LWFNN)
- Linking Levisham
- Luppitt Landscape Partnership
- Moccas Park Landscape Recovery (River Wye)
- Morridge Hill Country - Landscape Enhancement in the Staffordshire Moorlands
- North-West Norfolk Coast Project
- Ock and Thame Farmers: Freshwaters and Floodplains Restoration Project
- Ouse Washes Landscape Recovery - Farming for Food, Nature and Climate
- Penrith2Kendal Arc Landscape Recovery Project
- Penwith Landscape Recovery
- Resilient Glenderamackin
- Reviving Exmoor's Heartland
- Small is Beautiful - Landscape Recovery on the Isles of Scilly
- The Walkham Valley Landscape Recovery Project
- Upper Irthing PRISM (Peatland, Rivers, Invasives, rare Species & Meadows) Project
- Ure Dales
- West Norfolk Nature Network (WNNN)
- West Pennines More Nature Partnership (WPMNP)
- 'Win'ning the Allen
- Wyescapes; Food, Nature, Water
- Wylye Chalk Stream Project
As was the case for the first round of the scheme, projects were selected through a competitive application process.
Applicants were assessed against criteria which considered their feasibility, costs, environmental and social benefits and impact on food production, by a panel of subject matter experts.
The successful initiatives demonstrated pioneering ideas that will reverse the decline in nature and support the sustainable production of food.
Project spotlight
The Penwith Landscape Recovery project will rejuvenate the moors and downs of Penwith, Cornwall. The project will explore options for cattle grazing on the heathlands, while also ensuring that clean water flows through the fens and farmland.
On the other side of the country, the West Norfolk Nature Network will see a group of farmers transform the ecological landscape in Norfolk by creating swathes of contiguous multi-layered successional scrub, integrated with a mosaic of land and water-based features, serving as conduits for wildlife movement and diversity enhancement.
The Hadrian's Wall Wetland Landscape Recovery project in the Northumberland National Park will improve water quality, increase biodiversity, recreate ecologically rich habitats and enhance protected sites across the iconic Hadrian's Wall area. This project will encourage collaboration between farmers, land managers, neighbours and stakeholders to create new habitats to sequester carbon, which will help prevent urban flooding downstream. Using the landscape more efficiently will support the UK in its ambition to reach net zero.
Next steps
We will now start to enrol each project. This will be led by colleagues in the Environment Agency and Natural England.
Projects will then move into the Project Development Phase (PDP), in which they will have up to 2 years to complete project development activities.
These activities will include developing detailed land management plans, quantifying environmental and social outcomes and further assessing the impact on food production.
Subject to reaching agreement on suitable funding, projects will then move into implementation.
We will open a third round of Landscape Recovery in 2024.
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