Farmers should be paid for environmental services to society they were told at a meeting in Cardiff on 1st October – ‘Meeting Challenges in Land Management’.
Farming and land management in Wales can deliver huge benefits for society and the agriculture industry, according to the Head of Agriculture, Forestry and Soils at the Directorate General for the Environment at the European Commission.
More than 90 per cent of Wales is either forestry or farmland. How we manage this land in the future, will be vital to combating climate change and improving our environment.
Different land management techniques could help to store more carbon in the soil, maintain healthier river levels for people and wildlife and keep more rainwater out of rivers and reduce the risk of flooding to rural and urban communities.
It could also contribute to cleaning up the water in Welsh rivers to meet new tougher standards and make a difference to the bathing water quality at beaches throughout Wales.
These changes have recently been recognised in the new agri-environment scheme, Glastir, announced by the Welsh Assembly Government, earlier this year.
