Huw Irranca-Davies MS, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
I would like to thank all those who have contributed to the Environment and Rural Affairs Monitoring and Modelling Programme (ERAMMP) National Trends and Glastir Scheme Evaluation Report. This includes the field survey team, the analysts and scientists, and importantly landowners and farmers who have welcomed the field survey team onto their land and farms.
This independent report is the culmination of Welsh Government’s significant investment in high quality science over the past 10 years, demonstrating our commitment to evidence-based policy and robust monitoring and evaluation of policy impact.
The quality and breadth of the evidence base presented in the report is unmatched. Wales is unique amongst the four UK Nations in having and maintaining a long-term, integrated national monitoring programme across its rural environment. The design of the programme enables us to compare the results from the last 10 years with those from the historic Countryside Surveys stretching back to the 1970’s.
When considering this report, it’s important to fully appreciate the breadth and scale of the National Field Survey. Over 4,000 farm visits have been undertaken to collect extensive scientific data including: over 10,000 habitat assessments, over 8,000 soil samples, over 1,000 bird surveys, and over 500km of butterfly and pollinator transects walked.
This high-quality evidence base provides Welsh Government and stakeholders with a unique opportunity to learn and better understand the drivers and impact of changes taking place across our rural environment.
Even with this unique and high-quality evidence base there are gaps in our understanding, and I thank the authors for highlighting where additional analysis to fill these gaps is required.
I am reassured that the report demonstrates that by working together with farmers, landowners and stakeholders, positive environmental action can be achieved.
The report presents evidence that Glastir, continuing from previous agri-environment schemes has, on scheme farms, provided benefits to biodiversity, stabilised many other environmental indicators and in several indicators, delivered positive outcomes. These include positive trends for birds across many habitats and improvements in the condition of several habitats.
The evidence presented in this report suggests there is a stabilisation across many environmental indicators at the national scale, including stability in the national topsoil carbon concentration and in the vegetation condition of woodland but there are also many new and existing negative trends of particular concern. These include a three-fold increase in the number of improved grassland sites exceeding the phosphorus leaching threshold, a significant decrease in pollinators and over half of headwater streams surveyed having invasive invertebrates present. The report is also clear in its assessment of the lack of progress in decarbonising agriculture and increasing carbon sequestration.
The report concludes that while progress has been made, if we are to meet our targets for nature, climate and resilient and sustainable food production, more transformative and targeted action will be necessary across a greater area of land.
The design of the Sustainable Farming Scheme has, and will continue to be, informed by the best science and highest quality evidence. I remain committed to listening to and working with our stakeholders to ensure the final Scheme we deliver in 2026 is a Scheme that will help support the economic resilience of farming businesses, the sustainable production of food, our climate and nature objectives and our rural communities for current and future generations. ERAMMP and this report make a significant contribution to our evidence base informing the development of the Scheme.
A key recommendation of the report, the need for a national / sectoral approach, is central to the design of the SFS as a whole-farm Scheme, with the ambition of having as many farmers as possible taking part to provide the best opportunity to tackle the climate and nature emergency.
The learning from Glastir has been included in the design of the Universal Actions, particularly those relating to habitat where we intend to extend the benefits from Glastir to all farms participating in the Scheme.
The Universal Actions will lay the foundations upon which we build Optional and Collaborative Actions which will support further significant change. These actions will aim to support targeted intervention to provide opportunities for farmers to address issues at a local or national scale.
The well-established ERAMMP stakeholder group will explore these results over the coming months, and we will continue to draw on this and other evidence as the Scheme evolves.
We all have a role to play in responding to the nature and climate emergency and in securing resilient and sustainable food production and this report provides an important contribution to that response and essential learning for our future farm support in Wales.