LANDSCAPE AND NATURAL CAPITAL IN A NATIONAL PARK: THE CASE OF EXMOOR
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Dr Keith Howe The Exmoor Society
Natural England Landscape Network Autumn Webinar 2, 14 October 20201 CONTEXT ➢ National policy ➢ Exmoor National Park From KEY CONCEPTS & PRINCIPLES ➢ Landscape ➢ Natural capital ➢ Value ➢ The nature of economic decisions ➢ Private and public goods - to SHAPING EXMOOR’S FUTURE LANDSCAPE ➢ Exmoor’s Ambition ➢ Towards a Register of Exmoor’s Natural Capital
NEXT STEPS & ISSUES ARISING ➢ Making ELMS work ❑ Economics ❑ Governance ❑ Constraints 2 CONTEXT
The Exmoor Society 60th Anniversary & Exmoor National Park Authority Spring Conference (2017) - Dieter Helm’s challenge
A Green Future: Our 25 Year Plan to Improve the Environment (2018) - HM Government
Landscapes Review (2019) – the Glover report
Agriculture Bill (2020) For farmers, the most radical Environment Bill (2020) change for
Brexit (2020) agricultural policy since 1846
3 EXMOOR NATIONAL PARK
Counties: Somerset 71%, Devon 29% Area: 69,280 hectares = 171,189 acres = 267sq miles (30% of Lake District)
Landscape: Moorland or heath c25% of Exmoor National Park, 18,300 hectares of land lying between 305 m (1000 ft) and 519 m (1700 ft) above sea level.
Population: Main settlements: Lynton and Lynmouth, Dulverton, Porlock, each c1500; Dunster < 1000, Exmoor total 10,000+ Farms: 559 holdings, 412 full-time commercial farmers (2016)
Main farm outputs: In 2014/15, 62% of sheep were finished lamb sales, 16.3% finished cattle sales (majority sold as stores).
Farm business income (FBI): Of the 2014/15 aggregate for Farm Business Survey sample, all Exmoor farms; FBI was 17% of gross output, of which; 14.4% Single Farm Payment; 8.1% diversification out of agriculture; 60.2% agri-environment and other payments; minus 53.3% agriculture. 4 KEY CONCEPTS AND PRINCIPLES
Landscape
European Landscape Convention definition:
“…… an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors”
Our landscapes are extremely important to us, they are part of our cultural heritage.
Source: Christine Tudor, An Approach to Landscape Character Assessment, Natural England, October, 2014
5 KEY CONCEPTS AND PRINCIPLES
Landscape
6 Source: Natural England (2014). An Approach to Landscape Character Assessment. KEY CONCEPTS AND PRINCIPLES Natural capital “The parts of the natural environment that produce value to people.” UK Natural Capital Committee
“The world’s stocks of natural assets which include geology, soil, air, water and all living things. It is from this natural capital that humans derive a wide range of services, often called ecosystem services, which make human life possible.”
World Forum on Natural Capital
“….. the factor of production upon which the others – man- made capital, human capital and labour – all depend. Instead of being just one factor among many, it is primary, and the rest are secondary.”
Dieter Helm, Natural Capital: Valuing the Planet, page7 60 KEY CONCEPTS AND PRINCIPLES Value
The bedrock of economics ……. and least considered!
Based on each person’s feelings, physical and emotional, of needs and wants.
Depends on tastes and preferences, culture, ethics and beliefs.
A metaphysical concept
BUT
People reveal what, and how much, they value something by observable behaviour, including decisions about a) how they use their money, and b) vote in political contexts
8 KEY CONCEPTS AND PRINCIPLES Value & Landscape
“The relative value or importance attached to a landscape ……… expresses national or local consensus, because of its quality, special qualities including perceptual aspects such as scenic beauty, tranquillity or wilderness, cultural associations or other conservation issues.”
Source: The Landscape Institute and Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment (2002). Guidelines for Landscape and Visoual Impact Assessment. Second edition, London, Spon Press
9 KEY CONCEPTS AND PRINCIPLES
The nature of economic decisions
Economics is about the wellbeing of people in society
Economics defines criteria for people to obtain the greatest net benefits (wellbeing) from the scarce resources available to them (e.g. natural capital)
Trade-offs are unavoidable! (or, “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.”)
10 KEY CONCEPTS AND PRINCIPLES
Private and public goods
A private good: one whose characteristic is that it is both rival and excludable i.e. if I obtain the right to consume something (e.g. by paying for it) then no one else can (rival), and neither are they able to consume it themselves (excludable) without loss of benefit to me Simple example: My Exmoor lamb Sunday dinner A public good: one that it is neither rival nor excludable i.e. if I have no exclusive right to something (e.g. because I have not paid for it) and anyone else can benefit from it without loss to me
Simple example: The beautiful Exmoor view from Winsford Hill towards Dunkery Beacon and the Welsh coast
11 KEY CONCEPTS AND PRINCIPLES
Private and public goods
Private goods are obtainable by market activity, i.e. buying and selling involving transactions made at money prices which match supply with demand Simple example: Farmers selling fat lambs to butchers at an auction market
Public goods are typically underprovided. There is no incentive to produce them because there are no market transactions and consumers can free-ride.
Simple example: If there is no means to charge people who enjoy a beautiful landscape to cover costs incurred by landowners who maintain or enhance it, there is no incentive for them to do so. 12 KEY CONCEPTS AND PRINCIPLES
Source: Natural Capital Coalition https://naturalcapitalcoalition.org/natural-capital/
13 KEY CONCEPTS AND PRINCIPLES
Source: Natural Capital Coalition https://naturalcapitalcoalition.org/natural-capital/
14 KEY CONCEPTS AND PRINCIPLES
MEANS WANTS *
* Focus for natural capital accounting. An asset is a piece of property that is a store of value. “Natural capital assets are natural resources influenced by societal and personal attributes.” (Towards a Register of Exmoor’s Natural Capital. The Exmoor Society)
15 SHAPING EXMOOR’S FUTURE LANDSCAPE
16 SHAPING EXMOOR’S FUTURE LANDSCAPE
17 Report prepared by
& 18 https://www.exmoor-nationalpark.gov.uk/living-and-working/info-for-farmers-and-land-managers/exmoor-ambition KEY POINTS Context – 25 Year Environment Plan Ambition – “to pass on to the next generation our world class landscape, including its biodiversity, natural resources, historic environment and culture, in a better state than we received it.” 2 streams
Natural & cultural capital map registers for individual farm holdings
Farm Liaison Officer support Self-certification + light-touch administration
Landscape/supply chain scale co-ordinated strategic objectives for NC/economy/social foundations; knowledge sharing; payments for actions + results; bonuses 19 SHAPING EXMOOR’S FUTURE LANDSCAPE
20 KEY POINTS
Context – 25 Year Environment Plan + National Parks Statutory Purposes Aim – “to develop and pilot a practical toolkit for identifying and prioritising the natural capital assets that deliver the full range of benefits (ecosystem services) that can be provided by Exmoor.” Approach ➢ Use landscape character for place-based descriptions of natural capital (NC)
➢ Develop and test register of NC, 3 pilot areas covering almost all Exmoor landscape types
➢ Propose unifying classification of NC to overcome existing duplication and inconsistencies
➢ Special feature, to investigate and describe relationship between NC and cultural considerations
➢ Involve knowledge and values of local people who own, manage or use NC, thus having a personal stake in the NC concept 21 PUTTING PEOPLE AT THE HEART OF NATURAL CAPITAL
Relationship between natural capital assets, ecosystem services and benefits to society (adapted for the Exmoor study from ONS, 2017, Principles of Natural Capital Accounting)
22 Exmoor Landscape Character
23 1950s
Landscape Change
2016
24 BUILDING ON THE REGISTER - EXMOOR NPA TEST & TRIALS
25 Source: Courtesy of Alex Farris, Conservation Manager, Exmoor National Park Authority 26 HABITAT MAPPING
Source: Courtesy of Alex Farris, Conservation Manager, Exmoor National Park Authority 27 DESIGNATIONS & LANDSCAPE CHARACTER
28 Source: Courtesy of Alex Farris, Conservation Manager, Exmoor National Park Authority HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT & RIGHTS OF WAY
29 Source: Courtesy of Alex Farris, Conservation Manager, Exmoor National Park Authority NEXT STEPS & ISSUES ARISING
Making ELMS work ECONOMICS
▪ NB: Farmers adjust, because they must
▪ Make public goods look like private goods to farmers – i.e. monetise values to facilitate comparison with profit margins for agricultural products
▪ For each holding, enumerate natural capital features, and their scale, as basis for payments
▪ Consider cost implications of change, and provide ‘action payments’ to accommodate time-lags before outcomes are obtained and financially rewarded
▪ For holdings in aggregate (landscape scale) pay a ‘Beauty Bonus’ for outcomes achieved by shared efforts (including ‘positive externalities’)
30 NEXT STEPS & ISSUES ARISING
Making ELMS work
GOVERNANCE
▪ Needs national cross-party political consensus - cannot be short-term
▪ Needs shared local purpose, institutions co-operating, trust and good communication (all characteristic of Exmoor)
▪ Needs technical and business support for farmers + progress monitoring (role for Exmoor Hill Farming Network, Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group, others?)
31 NEXT STEPS & ISSUES ARISING
Making ELMS work
CONSTRAINTS
▪ UK public finances after Covid-19. How much can we afford? What role for the private sector?
▪ World Trade Organisation (WTO) law. Environmental payments must have minimal trade or production-distorting effects, comply with a defined government programme, and be limited to extra costs or loss of income associated with compliance (Paragraph 12, Annex 2, WTO Agreement on Agriculture).
➢ Outdated provision potentially open to challenge
➢ Possibly irrelevant if UK secures sufficient share of EU Aggregate Measurement of Support that, given Common Agricultural Policy reforms, allows distortionary effects (‘amber box’ measures)
32 References
Towards a Register of Exmoor’s Natural Capital + Technical Appendix https://www.exmoorsociety.com/content/publications/reports-2
Exmoor’s Ambition https://www.exmoor-nationalpark.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0027/248436/ExmoorsAmbition_Web.pdf
Farming Myths and Reality & Exmoor’s Farming Future
Articles in the forthcoming ‘Exmoor Review’ Volume 62, 2021, obtainable from The Exmoor Society, 34 High Street, Dulverton, Somerset, TA22 9DJ
Telephone: 01398 323335 Email: [email protected]
Local Natural Capital Accounting: does it deliver useful management information? A case study of Dartmoor and Exmoor National Parks
Report to Exmoor National Park Authority and Dartmoor National Park Authority , June 2020 https://sweep.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/SWEEP_NCAs_DNPA_ENPA_Full_report.pdf 33 Acknowledgements
The Exmoor Society Trustees; Rural Focus Ltd; Exmoor National Park Authority (ENPA); Alex Farris, Conservation Manager, ENPA; Exmoor Hill Farming Network; Victoria Eveleigh, West Ilkerton Farm
Contacts
Dr Keith Howe
k.s.howe@exeter.ac.uk
The Exmoor Society