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FARMING WITH NATURE INITIATIVE
We have always encouraged wildlife presence on our farms, protected remnant habitats and significant species, and restored degraded land. To us, working with nature is the greatest benefit of being farmers.
ABOUT THE INITIATIVE As farmers, we rely on healthy natural ecosystems to support healthy, productive farms. To ensure that the actions we take to increase biodiversity and restore ecosystems on our farms are of mutual benefit to the farming operation, we have in 2018 started the "Farming with Nature" initiative. We cannot return the rural landscape to its natural, pre-human state and still produce food to feed the increasing global population. However, maximising the amounts of natural and semi-natural habitats within the rural landscape is pivotal in halting biodiversity loss, sequestering carbon and reversing land degradation. Farming with Nature aims to balance conservation and production, encouraging natural regeneration and small changes to the landscape that increase the
quality and health of the local ecosystem without affecting productivity. We want our farms to be part of the larger landscape, and ensure connectivity between landscape elements. All with minimal human interference so that nature may take its own course.
WHAT WE DO We retire unsuitable land from production, allowing it to return to a natural state. Our policy is that a minimum of 10% of each farm's land area must be covered by natural habitat and 1% with waterbodies. But small reserves on their own are not enough. The remaining productive land, not specifically set aside as habitat for nature, must be as diverse and wildlife
