The use of Environmental Stewardship measures associated with the England Catchment Sensitive Farming Delivery Initiative in tackling agricultural pollution impacting on sensitive habitats

摘要

Pollution remains one of the main reasons why freshwater Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) are in poorer condition than other habitats. Many of the pollution problems impacting on the freshwater SSSIs, particularly from agriculture, cannotbe tackled through existing regulatory measures alone. In 2005 Resource Protection became one of the objectives of the Agri-environment programme in England (Environmental Stewardship - ES). In late 2006 the Defra England Catchment Sensitive Farming Delivery Initiative (ECSFDI) launched to help tackle diffuse pollution from agriculture in 40 (now 50) priority catchments using training and incentive mechanisms. These two voluntary programmes were able to use catchment modelling together with local and national knowledge to target the Resource Protection options within ES and the ECSFDI training and Capital Grant packages, to focus changes in land management and infrastructure improvement to best meet the needs for freshwater habitats. In order to get buy in from the local farming community for a successful campaign, messaging and local leadership is all important. Modelling of the action undertaken or predicted thus far indicates that significant environmental achievements are being made, however realoutcomes for habitats over the short term are more difficult to quantify and may need a more integrated approach.