Landowners or managers will be supported to carry out changes to land-use and habitat restoration in England, such as establishing new nature reserves, restoring floodplains, or creating woodland and wetlands.
The Landscape Recovery Scheme is being established for landowners and managers who want to take a radical and large-scale approach to producing environmental and climate goods on their land.
This scheme will support long-term, significant habitat restoration and land use change. It will initially focus on biodiversity, water quality and net zero. Defra will fund projects that contribute to these outcomes over a long period and through substantial changes to land use and habitats.
The first round of projects will be focused on two themes:
- Recovering and restoring England’s threatened native species (projects that would recover priority habitats, habitat quality and species abundance).
- Restoring England’s streams and rivers: improving water quality, biodiversity and adapting to climate change – these projects could restore water bodies, rivers, and floodplains to a more natural state, reduce nutrient pollution, benefit aquatic species, and improve flood mitigation and resilience to climate change.
Defra will not be setting out a list of activities that it will pay for and associated payment rates. Rather it will work with projects to negotiate bespoke agreements. Agreements will need to deliver ‘good value for money’ by delivering significant outcomes and attracting private finance to support the project.
Applications will be open to farmers and land managers, including any individuals or groups that want to come together to deliver large (500 – 5000 ha) scale projects in England.
Applications for the first wave of 15 Landscape Recovery projects will open shortly. At this stage Defra will be releasing an invitation to apply and publishing full scheme guidance.
How To Apply
Applications will open for the first wave of 15 Landscape Recovery projects shortly.
At this stage Defra will be releasing an invitation to apply and publishing full guidance on the scheme. This will cover detailed information on how bids will be assessed and how the scheme will work for the selected projects.
Defra is planning to open applications for Landscape Recovery pilot projects in at least two rounds over the next two years.
For more information, keep an eye on the Landscape Recovery Scheme web page.
Addresses and contacts
For further information on how to obtain this grant locally, please contact the following:
- Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)
Nobel House
17 Smith Square
London
SW1P 3JR