Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask Her Majesty's Government which Environmental Land Management tests and trials have included access provisions or schemes.

To support the development of Environmental Land Management (ELM), the Government is undertaking a number of tests and trials, working with farmers and land managers to co-design the new schemes. These tests and trials will help us to assess how the scheme could work in a real life environment. Three of our tests and trials look at issues concerning access.

1. The Trails Trust, How to incentivise green infrastructure access and biodiversity creation

The Trails Trust will work with 50 farmers and land managers in the Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) to explore the barriers and potential solutions to creating, upgrading and maintaining infrastructure networks. The test will look at the willingness of farmers and land managers to create, enhance and maintain access across different acreages and land uses. The test will also explore the valuation of incentives that landowners would require to implement access rights along specified routes. The test is due to conclude at the end of June 2021.

2. Kent Downs AONB, Enhancing access opportunities, as part of the NAAONBs (National Association of AONBs) submission

This proposal was submitted by the NAAONB on behalf of 12 individual AONBs, one of which included the Kent Downs AONB. The Kent Downs AONB’s test is working with two farmers/land manager groups to identify the barriers to access to landscapes and nature and co-develop a template of practical ways through which ELM can support better and more diverse access. Local trusted experts will work with farmers and land managers and their representative organisations to explore existing best practice; experts in access health and wellbeing will be involved to assess benefits and barriers. The test is due to complete by March 2021.

3. South Downs National Park Authority, South Downs and the Land App

South Downs National Park Authority is working with the Land App, a GIS mapping system developed for farmers, to collate maps and data about their holding in one user-friendly place. The proposal will work with farmers from the South Downs farm clusters and use the Land App and the data it holds to evaluate and plan the delivery of public goods at a landscape (cluster or part cluster) scale. This includes working with the Winchester Downs Cluster group who will focus on public access issues and opportunities. The test is due to complete by mid-July 2020.