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Hedgerows and farming report launched at House of Lords
CPRE research finds farmers support new hedgerows
CPRE Lancashire, Liverpool City Region and Greater Manchester’s Chair, Debbie McConnell, attended the launch of CPRE’s Farming and Hedgerows report at the House of Lords in early December. It was an opportunity to meet with some of the MPs for our region, including the MP for Bury North, James Daly, pictured below highlighting his support for our #40by50 campaign.
The survey, which was carried out by Farmers Weekly on behalf of CPRE, and completed by over 1100 farmers, shows strong support for the creation of new hedgerows for a range of reasons, including increasing biodiversity, attracting pollinators, providing shade for crops and shelter for creatures that predate on pests. In addition to this, there was a general recognition that hedgerows can increase the beauty of the countryside. 86% of those who responded to the survey said that hedgerows were important to them and their businesses.
Despite the fact that 60% of farmers had planted hedgerows in the last decade, lack of sufficient funding was cited by a large majority as the obstacle to wider scale hedgerow planting. CPRE recommends that, in addition to including hedgerow planting in the Environmental Land Management Schemes, the government also explores other avenues of funding for hedgerow creation, which may be appropriate for carbon credit or schemes, or to play a role in improving water quality.
