The launch of Wales' Sustainable Farming Scheme

By the time you read this the Welsh Government will have launched its new Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) and will now be using hundreds of millions of pounds annually to support farmers to transition to a sustainable future. A future where they produce high-quality food while caring for the environment and adapting to climate change. In achieving this aim the scheme is also intended to help Welsh farming make a significant contribution to restoring nature and help Wales meet its 2030 biodiversity commitments.  

RSPB Cymru welcomes this approach and sees it a fair and just use of taxpayers’ money in a time of ever-increasing demands on the limited public purse. A scheme that is good for nature is good for us – we rely on the natural world every day. It gives us the clean air we breathe, the water we drink, and the healthy soils to grow nutritious food. 

However, with Wales being one of the most nature depleted countries in the World, restoring nature and the benefits this provides presents a huge challenge. And it makes sense that given over 80% of Wales is farmed, farmers have a scheme that is up to the task.   

The simple answer is, despite being in development for almost ten years, we still don’t know. 

So far only the Universal (entry) layer of the scheme has been launched. While this is a welcome step forward, it alone will not be enough to halt – let alone reverse – the decline in wildlife. To truly support Welsh farmers to restore nature, the SFS must go further to support them. It needs to:

• Deliver the right mixes of farmland habitats across Wales to benefit widespread but declining species, including flower and seed rich habitats, well-managed hedgerows and ponds. With the right support, every farmer in Wales can do this.
• Ensure Wales’ most important nature sites, such as Sites of Special Scientific Interest, are effectively managed and monitored.
• Reverse the decline of threatened species like Curlew, Marsh Fritillary Butterfly and Shrill Carder Bee, by preventing extinction and restoring populations.

To achieve these, the scheme must support farmers to deliver the right actions, in the right combinations, in the right places and at the right scale, backed by good advice, long-term collaboration and adequate funding. Welsh Government’s own ten-year review of previous schemes concluded they had limited impact on delivering environmental outcomes because they failed to deliver this targeted approach. It is therefore understandable that farmers, despite their best efforts, have struggled to use these schemes to address the serious challenges facing nature in the past.

Having now launched the Universal layer, we are calling on Welsh Government to ensure the upper tiers of its scheme are available as soon as possible and that they will deliver a more targeted and ambitious approach and are adequately funded. This is vital if farmers across Wales are to be properly supported to help restore nature alongside sustainable food production.