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Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
Mark Ward Defra

Mark Ward

Mark is a policy officer in the Farming in Protected Landscapes team. His core remit is to work with colleagues in the Farming Countryside Programme to ensure the best parts of FiPL are integrated into Defra's environmental land management schemes.

Farming in Protected Landscapes: our progress and a spotlight on the 3,000th project

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Payments to support parks, National Landscapes and the Broads

Since launching in 2021, the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme has funded 3,000 projects across England. Together, these projects have created and improved more than 70,000 hectares (ha) of habitat for biodiversity, planted more than 100 miles of hedgerow, more than 100,000 trees  and conserved or enhanced 300 historic features, buildings and structures. In this post I'll shine a light on the 3,000th project and share details of an upcoming spotlight series.

Farming in Protected Landscapes: interim evaluation findings

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Payments to support parks, National Landscapes and the Broads
South Downs National Landscape. A patchwork of fields under blue skies.

Through the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme (FiPL), farmers and land managers can get funding to deliver projects that support and improve National Landscapes (formerly Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty), National Parks and the Broads. In this post, I'll share an overview of the programme and findings from the recently published Farming in Protected Landscapes evaluation. The findings give a sense of how popular the scheme has been and the reasons behind it.  

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About us

This blog is managed by Defra’s Farming and Countryside Programme.

On this blog, we explain the reforms to agricultural policy in England.

We share what we’re working on, what we’re learning and how you can get involved.

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New: drafts of further endorsed SFI actions

We’ve published drafts of an additional 14 SFI endorsed actions. Once we take stakeholder feedback on board, we expect these actions to be available from summer 2025.

Funding for farmers, growers and land managers in England

GOV.UK is the place to find official guidance and information.

Funding for farmers, growers and land managers sets out every payment on offer with links to learn more.

Get advice

The Farming Resilience Fund provides free, independent business support to farmers. If you’ve received direct payments since October 2022, you’re eligible. 

The Farming Advice Service (FAS) provide free, confidential advice to farmers and advisers.

Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) helps farmers in England protect water, air and soil. CSF advisers can provide advice on best practices and specific SFI actions that will benefit your farm business and the environment.

We’ve compiled a list of organisations offering wellbeing support to those in the farming community.

The Sustainable Farming Incentive

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Find out how SFI can work for you.

Webinars in 2025

Attend upcoming webinars and watch recordings.

BPS and delinked payments

Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) in England will be replaced with delinked payments in 2024.

Learn how they’re calculated and who’s eligible.

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