2 of the UK's most treasured landscapes to be restored in groundbreaking new project
Good news for farmers! Two of the UK's most treasured landscapes are set to be restored and enhanced in a significant nature programme, thanks to £8.5 million funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
The Upper Teesdale in the North Pennines, County Durham, and Upper Swaledale in the Yorkshire Dales National Park will be recovered in the ambitious project, which is known as the Tees-Swale: Naturally Connected programme.
The five-year initiative, which covers an area in the Northern uplands of 829 km2, will work closely with local farmers to help reverse the decline in biodiversity by hay meadow restoration, peatland re-establishment, river enhancement, wetland and woodland creation.
By mitigating climate change, boosting biodiversity and improving wellbeing, the scheme will help to aid the post-COVID-19 green recovery of the UK — and, wonderfully, put farmers in the area first.
So far, those on the team have been working closely with over 60 farmers and landowners in preparation of the project, but there are hopes to partner with all 300 farmers in the area.
"The area is a stunning cultural landscape, moulded by human activities for millennia; it is also one of the most biodiverse parts of the English uplands, partly as a result of some of the nature-friendly farming practices that take place there," Sir John Lawton, Chair of the Tees-Swale board, says.
"The programme allows us to build on those practices and put farming at the heart of nature recovery. From a personal perspective the programme allows me to be part of putting into practice the central principles of the Making Space for Nature report which I led ten years ago: nature recovery needs 'more, bigger, better managed and joined up' habitats."
René Olivieri, Chair of The National Lottery Heritage Fund, adds: "Landscapes and nature form the bedrock of our culture and heritage, but over recent years, the scale of nature loss and people's lack of understanding of the importance of nature has become increasingly stark. Never before has the need to aid nature's recovery, particularly in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, been more urgent."
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