By Claire Marshall.
The Environment and Rural Affairs Correspondent of the British Broadcasting Corporation.
The image is from the same source.
Under new government subsidies, farmers and land owners in England could be paid to turn large areas of land into nature reserves.
Farmers in the UK were given grants based on how much land they farmed.
The government will pay based on how farmers care for the environment.
Environmental groups say the new plans lack detail.
Landowners and farmers will be able to bid for funding to turn vast areas of land into wildlife restoration, carbon sequestration, or flood prevention projects.
The Environment Secretary George Eustice said that there would be a more generous set of incentives for farmers to do the right thing.
We can have both sustainable, profitable food production and a recovery for nature.
Each UK nation has its own plans for agriculture.
Farmers were given taxpayers' money based on the amount of land they held, and the more land they held, the more cash support they got. In 2020 it was about 3.5 billion dollars.
The government wants to encourage farmers to use practices that improve the environment instead of rewarding them for how much land they work.
Farming creates 10% of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions, and large-scale agriculture has been accused of degrading the environment.
The first wave of "Landscape Recovery" projects will soon be open for applications. Mr Eustice said that the scheme would lead to "fundamental land use change" and that it would involve "intensive interventions".
10,000 hectares of restored wildlife habitat is the aim of the pilot projects, which could help sequester carbon and restore England's rivers and streams. Mr Eustice hoped that it would lead to more large-scale rewilding projects like the Knepp estate.
Craig Bennett, chief executive of the Wildlife Trusts, said that the golden opportunity of the agricultural transition was in danger of being wasted.
He said that the devil will be in the detail, and that the detail is not published nearly six years after the EU referendum.
The schemes fit well with the challenges of reversing declines in Britain's most vulnerable species, according to Dr Alexander Lees. He said that the pilot's ambitions seemed "simultaneously low and over-ambitious".
It would be hard to reverse the loss of the most threatened species in just 10,000 hectares.
"If we are serious, then we need to be racing towards the 300,000hectare target as fast as possible."
The Local Nature Recovery scheme will pay farmers to plant trees, restore wetlands or create wildlife habitat.
Mr Eustice said that it was about individual farms or groups making space for nature on part of their holding, perhaps creating water features on some of the less productive land.
The policy aims to be in place by the year 2030.
The decline in species should be stopped.
Up to 60% of England's agricultural soil can be put under sustainable management.
Restore 300,000 hectares of wildlife habitat by 2042.
Prof Dave Goulson, from University of Sussex, said it looked like a step in the right direction, but more information is needed about exactly what is funded and how much has to be delivered to qualify for the payments.
The details of the SFI were revealed in December.
The Wildlife Trusts, National Trust and RSPB were very critical of the SFI plans, saying they did not go far enough.
30% of arable soils can be left bare over winter, which is bad for soil health. The standards don't address the damaging impact of pesticides on soil.
Farmers would be left to assess their own management plans.
Mr Eustice said that judging how successful the plan is would be difficult in the future.
He said that the schemes have been evaluated over the course of 20 years. It may not be perfect, but we think it's accurate. You have to work on something.
Agriculture.
Nature.
George Eustice was a person.
It's a topic of discussion.
