The Defra-funded Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) programme supports farming and land management activities in England’s Protected Landscapes that make improvements for nature, climate, people and place.

The innovative FiPL programme approach blends national, regional and local priorities and devolves decision making to local experts. It also fills gaps not met by other farming support available, especially for smaller landholders. Contributions to nature recovery and climate resilience, sustainable businesses, social wellbeing and community building, heritage conservation and better access for people to enjoy our nation’s landscapes all feature in programme delivery, coming together to make much more resilient rural places.

Landowners and managers apply for the grants, and the NL teams help to make sure the activities proposed follow best practices and help to deliver more holistic outcomes. Applications for under £10,000 are assessed by a senior member of the relevant protected landscape team. Applications over £10,000 are considered by independent Local Assessment Panels with experts from across the protected landscape.

Dave has native pedigree Welsh Black cattle and Clun Forest sheep used for conservation grazing enhancing habitats such as Lowland heathland, woodland pasture, and species rich grasslands. This grazing is vital for supporting these rare habitats.

He also hosts a wide range of events and tours on farm to get the public and school children onto the farm. Dave’s Organic rotational farming includes; heritage grains, wild bird seed plots and herbal leys. He and 6 other farmers in Cornwall are also taking part in a field trial funded by FIPL investigating establishment techniques for herbal leys – grasslands that provide food for pollinators, improve soil structure and fertility and capture more carbon from the atmosphere.

Dave has used FiPL funding to buy specialist equipment and set up “Meadow Match” – a project finding healthy meadows, harvesting seeds and transplanting them to improve other fields in the local area for Nature.

Dave says: ‘FiPL is the funding I’ve waited decades for. Farming in unique landscapes requires flexibility, every farm is different. The National grants programmes don’t take local needs into account. For instance, to get to many of the fields I farm, I have to go along small lanes and then through a narrow gates. FiPL has supported me to buy a narrow seed drill. The larger schemes won’t fund drills with a working width of less than 3m, too big for fit down our lanes. Ensuring that funding programmes support smaller farms is essential to meet the nature and climate challenges we face and to keep rural communities sustainable.’