Major nature charities highlight the need for £594 million annually to support nature friendly farming in Wales

RSPB Cymru, National Trust Cymru and The Wildlife Trust Wales are calling on the Government to urgently commit to this long-term annual investment in nature and climate friendly farming, as with the effect of nature and climate crises worsening, any delay to future proofing the agricultural sector will cost more to fix.

The charities say schemes such as the Sustainable Farming Scheme must help farmers bring back nature and tackle climate change while producing food sustainably and underpinning resilient businesses.

New economic analysis, published today, demonstrates that the current agricultural budget for Wales is half the amount required to meet nature restoration and climate targets through farming and land use, and put Welsh farming on a more sustainable footing.

The independent analysis, commissioned by RSPB Cymru, National Trust Cymru and Wildlife Trust Wales, finds that increasing Welsh investment to £594 million per annum is essential in order to fund Welsh farmers in tackling the nature and climate crisis, and to provide a sustainable future for food production. Across the UK the annual figure needs to increase to £5.9 billion.

The “Scale of Need” report builds on previous analyses, giving the most accurate assessment to date of the investment required to enable farmers to deliver nature alongside food production. The new figures include, for the first-time, detailed analysis of different farm types and the variable costs of nature restoration across different sectors and sizes of farms.

The new analysis finds that the current annual Welsh agricultural budget of approximately £300 million, will be insufficient to meet nature and climate targets.

Alun Prichard, Director of RSPB Cymru said:
“With almost 90% of Wales farmed, farmers have a crucial role in restoring nature. From providing a range of wildlife habitats, restoring peatlands and saving threatened species, like Curlew, there is widespread ambition in the industry to produce food and tackle the nature and climate crisis. The Scale of Need Report clearly highlights that Wales needs significantly more funding than current levels to match this ambition.”

There is growing recognition of the wider benefits that investing in nature’s restoration brings, not least underpinning our ability to produce food. As well as providing the air we breathe and the water we drink, nature provides us with healthy soils to produce our food. Restoring nature is vital to our future food security, including making farming more resilient to the worsening impacts of extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, droughts and flooding, resulting from climate change. Farming with nature also makes good business sense as it is less reliant on increasingly expensive feeds and fertilisers.

Following the publication of the report, the charities argue that Wales’s new Sustainable Farming Scheme must be ambitious and properly funded to reward farmers for bringing back nature and tackling climate change while producing food sustainably.

Rachel Sharp Director of Wildlife Trusts Wales says:
“Today’s Scale of Need report clearly shows how much money farming needs in Wales needs to invest in nature’s restoration. Farmers are key to restoring nature and this needs to be done at scale and pace across Wales. This is an investment and not a cost. An investment into a sustainable future where restoring nature by farmers will help alleviate flooding, store carbon, decrease river pollution and increase resilience against extreme climate events.”

In order to fully support farming’s transition to a sustainable future, RSPB Cymru, National Trust Cymru and the Wildlife Trust Wales are calling on the Welsh Government to be ambitious in its plans to invest in agriculture.

Helen Pye, Assistant Director of National Trust Cymru said:
“As the new Scale of Need analysis demonstrates, further investment must be focussed on incentive schemes that provide enough support for farmers to bring back nature, tackle climate change and build a sustainable future for food production. Welsh Government must ensure agriculture is properly supported to transition to more resilient nature-friendly farming businesses.”