The Future of the Uplands: A Case Study of Agriculture and Biodiversity in the Peak District

Paul Armsworth, University of Sheffield

Szvetlana Acs, Martin Dallimer, Kevin Gaston, Nick Hanley, Phil Robertson, Dugald Tinch and Paul Wilson

AimsAims

• Importance of the uplands• Case study and evidence base• Effect of recent policy changes• Likely impact of future policy choices• Design of agri-environment schemes• Public preferences for upland landscapes

Upland Ecosystems

• Important for biodiversity • Important for ecosystem services• Recognised in designation status• Margins of agricultural productivity • Limited production choices• Rural deprivation• Subsidy dependence• Policies in flux

Evidence base

• Case study: Peak District National Park

• Historical documents• Socioeconomic survey of farm

businesses• Ecological surveys of bird community

and habitat quality• Modelling of alternative policy scenarios• Choice experiments and contingent

valuation surveys with visitors and locals

Decreasing stocking rates

• Sheep numbers decrease with decoupling...

• But after 70 years of increase

• Loss of suckler cows

Increasing specialisation

• Switch to Single Farm Payment predicts:

2 from 4 mixed farm types become specialised

• History of increasing

specialisation

Little abandonment

• With SFP and other schemes, most land remains in production

• More abandonment if core SFP support were to go

Farm labour

• Historical documents show no evidence of total labour reduction

• Technological improvement offset by increased production

• But significant labour reductions expected under decoupling

Farm incomes

With onset of Single Farm Payment, net farm incomeincreases on some properties and decreases on others

Farm incomes

But depends on core support, other schemes (AES & HFA) and off-farm income to be viable

Implications for biodiversity

The design of AES

Public Support

• Choice experiments and CV surveys with locals and visitors

Visitors willing to pay for more conservative management, especially of moorland

Locals not

Conclusions

• Ongoing policy changes will have major implications for farming in the hills...

• ...and upland biodiversity• Some changes reverse direction of long

term trends (stocking rates). • Others continue them (specialisation).• Preferences vary between visitors and

locals• Visitors significant WTP for moorland

conservation