Funded by the Environment Agency through the Lowland Agricultural Peat Water Discovery Pilot, Somerset Moor Futures covers five deep peat moors in the Parrett, Axe-Brue, and North Somerset catchments, and looks to explore how farmers could make collective land use decisions.
The aim is to bring together farmers and landowners across entire hydrological blocks (groups known as Moor Associations) to develop a farmer-led model for collaboration and consensus-building. The focus will be on exploring how land management could change across a whole moor to enable farmers to access new public and private finance opportunities, with particular emphasis on peat preservation and emissions reduction.
As part of the project:
- 5 new Moor Associations have been set up across Somerset and North Somerset;
- information workshops have been run on the wider peatland policy context, peatland science, and funding opportunities for farmers;
- a working group of farmers has developed a decision-making model for consensus-building;
- so far, two Moor Associations have tested the decision-making model to create costed whole-moor land use plans – these are hypothetical explorations of future land use, identifying farmers’ ambitions and opportunities for change, key barriers, and the cost of landscape scale transition.
Net Zero targets mean that emissions reduction on lowland agricultural peatland is of great importance – given that any water level change will affect an entire hydrological block, collaborative land use planning is key to being able to reduce emissions effectively.
Additionally, farmers are often excluded from strategic decision making around land use. The project aims to allow farmers to be part of these land use discussions and set their own vision for the landscape that combines emissions reduction with agricultural production and profitable farm businesses.
To find out more about the impact of the Co-Designing Planning Processes please click here
Project lead:
Anna Lantaff, Farm Environment Adviser – email: lantaff@fwagsw.org.uk
Will Barnard, Moors Association Coordinator – email: barnard@fwagsw.org.uk
Funded by Environment Agency and Partnered with Avon Wildlife Trust
