Habitat Wales Scheme 2024: addendum to rules booklet

This addendum refers to the Welsh Government Habitat Wales Scheme Guidance Booklet published on 29 September 2023. All changes and additions are made to Part 1, Section B: Habitat Wales scheme – Identified Habitat Land.

This is now superseded by the following:

Identified habitat land

Habitat land has been identified through existing habitat layers, as identified by published maps on DataMapWales. For detailed information of the type and location of habitat on your holding please go to Habitat Wales Scheme on DataMapWales.

All Habitat land that meets the management control requirements must be included in your application. You do not have the option to remove habitat land which meets the eligibility requirements from the application, unless exceptional circumstances can be demonstrated. 

Exceptional circumstances

Exceptional circumstances, in the case of identified habitat land, include any of the following:

• improved fields, in whole or in part, identified as habitat land which have been used to take hay or silage over the past five years or are intensively grazed. The inclusion of these fields under habitat management would severely impact forage production.  Typically, these fields would:
  • have been ploughed, reseeded, including sward rejuvenated through direct drilling or surface seeding, in the last 10 years
  • the sward has a composition of more than 25% sown agricultural species including rye grass and white clover
  • the land has received regular input of inorganic fertiliser / farmyard manure
  • the land is of high productivity – one or more cut of hay or silage taken annually
  • the land has a limited range of different wild plants and grasses typical of the habitat identified
• fields used in an arable rotation in the last five years which have been identified as habitat

If you wish to unselect a field parcel from your Habitat Wales Scheme Expression of Interest (EoI) due to any of the above exceptional circumstances, you may do so by following the instructions on pages 15 and 16 of the Habitat Wales Scheme: using RPW online to apply. You will need to select the ‘Exceptional Circumstances’ reason for unselecting the parcel and provide details of why in the text box shown.

Parcels unselected due to exceptional circumstances and reasons provided will be reviewed to ensure they meet the above exceptional circumstances criteria and it is acceptable to remove them from the EoI.