The Welsh Assembly Government's controversial land management scheme Glastir misses an opportunity to make a real difference to climate change, says the Farmers' Union of Wales today (Tuesday, 16 March).
"Glastir is missing the opportunity to make a real difference to climate change because it ignores the opportunities for sequestrating carbon from managed grazing and concentrates on tree planting. Such a measure is unlikely to be taken up by farmers as they would be reluctant to see agricultural land taken out of production with little gain," said the union's deputy policy director Rhian Nowell-Phillips.
"The Assembly Government is keen to promote Glastir as a land management scheme, but it has failed to 'think outside the box' to look at opportunities beyond those available under previous agri-environment schemes, which is disappointing given the emerging evidence about the contribution grazing systems can make to carbon uptake."
Ms Nowell-Phillips also expressed concern that bringing forward just one element of the targeted scheme could create even more confusion amongst farmers who are already not sure whether they will be able to access this part of the scheme.
"One of our concerns has been how difficult it will be for farmers to decide whether to go into the all-Wales element without knowing whether they will be accepted into the targeted element which is based on delivering six objectives including carbon and water storage, water quality, historic environment, biodiversity and access.
"The fact that the Minister has announced the early start of one of the elements of the scheme reinforces the FUW's view that the current timetable means that insufficient information is available to farmers who will need to indicate their interest in the scheme's ' targeted element' by ticking a box on their 2010 SAF form within the next few weeks.
"Farmers, like any other businessmen, need time to consider what is available to them under the provisions of the scheme before making a long-term business commitment.
"The FUW continues to demand a full economic impact assessment of the new scheme in view of the fact that the current Tir Mynydd scheme helped to avoid land abandonment and rural depopulation.
"Unless Glastir is made accessible and simpler there could be severe consequences for Welsh communities and environments, especially in the uplands."
The FUW also has great concern about the current timetable given the diverse problems associated with Glastir on common land and the problems that are arising with tenancy issues which are likely to preclude many farmers who may wish to access Glastir but through no fault of their own cannot meet the criteria.
"We fear it will be a complex enough process for normal farmland, but on common or tenanted land the complexities are multiplied due to the different ways in which common land is used in different areas and the types of tenancy and grazing agreements that exist in Wales."