Environmental Stewardship
Latest news
Update - Entry Level Stewardship (ELS)
The EU Commission decision formally approving the Rural Development Programme for England 2007-2013 was issued on 7 December 2007.
Formal approval for the Programme makes it possible to move to full implementation.
Natural England is in the process of contacting all those who have entered provisional Environmental Stewardship agreements since January 2007 with details of what will happen to these agreements now. Further details about Environmental Stewardship in the 2007-2013 Programme can be found here: http://www.defra.gov.uk/erdp/rdp07_13/qa.htm.
Environmental Stewardship agreements entered into before 1 January 2007 will not be affected by these discussions.
Anyone who has entered into an Environmental Stewardship agreement since 1 January 2007 will be eligible for payment for work they have undertaken so far under the provisional agreement.
Green farming schemes on secure footing
Green light for Environmental Stewardship
New Rural Development Programme 2007 and Cross Compliance - important news for applicants
Natural England delivers the Government's programme of financial incentives (including Environmental Stewardship) to farmers and land managers for the protection and enhancement of the natural environment.
- What is Environmental Stewardship?
- What are the benefits?
- ES Review of Progress
- Regional News
- How do I apply?
- Agreement start dates
- Registering your land
What is Environmental Stewardship?
Environmental Stewardship is a new agri-environment scheme which provides funding to farmers and other land managers in England who deliver effective environmental management on their land.
The scheme is intended to build on the recognised success of the Environmental Sensitive Areas scheme and the countryside Stewardship Scheme. Its primary objectives are to:
- Conserve wildlife (biodiversity)
- Maintain and enhance landscape quality and character
- Protect the historic environment and natural resources
- Promote public access and understanding of the countryside
- Natural resource protection
Within the primary objectives it also has the secondary objectives of:
- Genetic conservation
- Flood management
Environmental stewardship has three elements:
- Entry Level Stewardship (ELS)
- Open to all farmers and landowners.
- Simple and effective land management.
- Organic Entry Level Stewardship (OELS)
- Organic strand of ELS.
- Open to all farmers not receiving Organic Farming Scheme (OFS) aid.
- Higher Level Stewardship (HLS)
- Targeted environmental management.
- Capital work plans.
Download the Environmental Stewardship promotional booklet![[Click to download Adobe Acrobat Reader]](/graphics/buttons/pdf.gif){kind=small}
[1.6MB]
What are the benefits?
ELS provides a straightforward approach to supporting the good stewardship of the countryside. OELS takes a similar approach, but is geared to organic and organic/conventional mixed farming systems. HLS is designed to build on ELS and OELS to form a comprehensive agreement that achieves a wide-range of environmental benefits across the whole farm. HLS concentrates on the more complex types of management where land managers need advice and support and where agreements will be tailored to local circumstances. ELS and OELS go beyond what will be required under the Single Payment Scheme (SPS) cross compliance conditions. Entering into an Environmental Stewardship agreement will not remove any cross compliance obligations.
ES Review of Progress
A Defra led Review of Progress of Environmental Stewardship, run jointly with Natural England (NE), was launched in May 2007 to look at progress of the scheme. The final report [PDF] (907 KB) was published in May 2008
Regional news
Follow the relevant link below to your region. There may be information on regional news and events, e.g. meetings, including dates, times, venues:
- East of England
- East Midlands
- North East
- North West
- South East
- South West
- West Midlands
- Yorkshire and the Humber
How do I apply?
Information on how to apply is available in the handbooks that support Environmental Stewardship. There are separate handbooks for each element of the scheme, and an additional handbook for the Farm Environment Plans required for Higher Level Stewardship.
- Entry Level Stewardship handbook
- Organic Entry Level Stewardship handbook
- Higher Level Stewardship handbook
- Farm Environment Plan handbook
Agreement start dates
The first Environmental Stewardship (ES) agreements got underway from 1 August 2005.
Entry Level Stewardship (ELS) and Organic Entry Level Stewardship (OELS)
ELS and OELS operates on the basis of monthly start dates.
Our target will be to provide you with an agreement within three months of receipt of a valid application. Agreements will commence on the first day of each month so for example, we aim to issue an agreement by 1 October for a valid application received during July. We will give you the earliest start date we are able to unless you ask for a specific date later than the three month target.
Higher Level Stewardship (HLS)
We are not able to extend monthly agreement start dates to HLS as the requirements of this element of Environmental Stewardship are quite different and more complex.
The anticipated 2006 and 2007 agreement start dates for applications are scheduled to be as follows (the 2007 dates are subject to securing timely EU approval of the new Rural Development Programme from the beginning of 2007 ).
| HLS application deadline | HLS agreement start date |
|---|---|
| 30 June 2006 | 1 November 2006 |
| 30 September 2006 | 1 February 2007 |
| 31 December 2006 | 1 May 2007 |
| 31 March 2007 | 1 August 2007 |
| 30 June 2007 | 1 November 2007 |
Registering your land
Registering your land on the Rural Land Register for Environmental Stewardship (ES) applications.
As stated in the scheme handbooks only land that is recorded on the Rural Land Register can be entered into Environmental Stewardship.
New land registration requests and amendments to existing registered land should be referred to the Rural Payment Agency. Once the land is registered, an application for ES can be made.
If only small areas of your holding are unregistered you may wish to enter the bulk of your land now. Please contact your regional Natural England Customer Service Unit[46 KB] for details of other options that may be open to you.
Page last modified:
8 May, 2008
Page published: 3 March, 2005