Defra PES Pilot Evaluation of the Pumlumon Project 2014 Pumlumon Living Landscapes Project Defra PES Pilot Evaluation of the Pumlumon Project Alison Millward Associates Date: 20 Reddings Road 7th May 2014 Moseley Birmingham B13 8LN Tel: 0121 449 9181 Email: [email protected] Defra PES Pilot Evaluation of the Pumlumon Project 2014 Contents Page 1 Executive Summary 3 2 Introduction to the Pumlumon Project 13 3 Objectives of the Interim Evaluation 15 4 Key events in the development of the Project 17 5 Engagement with stakeholders 22 6 Delivering ecosystem services in practice 29 7 The value of the ecosystem services delivered 30 8 Intangible output, outcomes and impacts 37 9 Funding strategy 39 10 Achievement against objectives 46 11 Conclusions 48 12 Next steps 50 Appendix A – valuation calculations 52 Appendix B – scoping workshop reports 54 2 Defra PES Pilot Evaluation of the Pumlumon Project 2014 1 Executive Summary Introduction The environment provides human kind with a variety of services that contribute to the wealth of nations and the well-being of citizens. These services include water and clean air; minerals, timber and other raw materials for our industry and consumption; habitats and plants that can absorb and neutralise harmful chemicals and wastes; and places for us to take recreation in and enhance our physical and mental well-being. Collectively these services are referred to as ecosystem services and they can be grouped into four broad categories: provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting. The supporting services of soil formation, nutrient cycling, water cycling and primary production (of plants and animals) are the natural processes that drive the provision of all the other ecosystem services. The Pumlumon Project (PP) is one of several schemes across the UK piloting the application of an Ecosystem Approach to landscape management which can deliver a wider and more integrated suite of benefits for people, the local economy and wildlife than the traditional land management practices of the past. The Pumlumon Project (PP) is a place-based project, covering a watershed area of 40,000ha (150 square miles) across the highest part of the Cambrian Mountains, straddling the counties of Powys and Ceredigion. It is named after Pumlumon Mountain and at its heart is the Pumlumon Site of Special Scientific Interest (3,730ha). The whole Project area is home to 15,000 people, spread across 11 local communities. There are 250 farms in the Project area and farming, forestry and tourism are the main economic activities. It is also the largest watershed in Wales, supplying water to four million people in England from the reservoirs and streams in the hills that drain into the Wye, Severn, Rheidol, Dyfi and Leri river catchments. This Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) scheme is being led by the Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust (MWT) with the involvement of a wide range of partners and stakeholders. The funding for staff, contractors, materials and new visitor facilities is drawn from a wide range of funding sources but primarily from charitable trusts and government. This evaluation of the Pumlumon Project has been supported by funding from Defra as part of the PES pilots and covers both the achievements to date of the Project and also the process through which these have been realised. The aim of this Evaluation of the first eight years from 2005-2013 of the Project was to assess the Project with respect to the following objectives: 1. Summarise the key events and milestones 2. Evaluate the Project team's efforts to engage with stakeholders 3. Describe the practical mechanisms used for delivering additional ecosystems services 4. Complete a financial analysis of the resources used 5. Estimate the value of the measurable ecosystem service outputs 6. Estimate the intangible outputs and outcomes of the project 7. Evaluate the funding strategy 8. Evaluate the extent to which the Project’s objectives have been met 9. Summarise the lessons learnt. Engaging with stakeholders All MWT’s Project team were (and continue to be) very active in building relationships with individual stakeholders, always seeking to explain what the Project is about and recruiting new participants. They had to be very active and at times very persistent as the audience they encountered fell into two groups: those who "Got it" and those that didn't or were at the very least highly sceptical about the likelihood of success. Internally some of MWT’s Trustees were also sceptical of the landscape scale 3 Defra PES Pilot Evaluation of the Pumlumon Project 2014 approach, the reaction of Welsh farmers to it and the financial risks to the Trust of tackling such a major and long-term project. There have been many presentations given to workshops and conferences up and down the UK which have greatly helped to raise the profile of MWT and its pioneering work. Visits to the Project area have been hosted for political and educational visitors from inside as well as outside Wales. The factors that seem to have had the most positive and persuasive influences on stakeholders include: political and policy endorsement by government making it easy for farmers and landowners to participate generating new income streams for the land owners and farmers using site visits to the changed landscapes to facilitate ‘seeing is believing’. Stakeholders from the statutory agencies were keen to emphasise how important it was to them for the Project to continue and to collect more data to evidence and explain the significance of the outputs and outcomes of the Project. Funding So far the Project has raised £2.3m since 2006 which includes £1.4m for new visitor facilities. Landscape management practices have been changed over more than 450ha of upland peat, grassland, heath and woodland in the heart of the Project area with the involvement of 15 land owners. The Defra PES pilot funding in particular has supported this evaluation of the Project’s achievements to date and has helped to formalize explorations of future sources of funding including accessing new market mechanisms such as the Peatland Code. Outputs, outcomes and impacts The Project has demonstrated ‘proof of concept’ by delivering ecosystem services through visible and sustainable changes in landscape quality, biodiversity, access and economic well-being throughout the Project area but principally in the uplands, on the flanks of the Pumlumon Mountains and in the Dyfi valley. 4 Defra PES Pilot Evaluation of the Pumlumon Project 2014 Rhos y Garreg Flood Water Project Table 1 overleaf indicates which of the ecosystem services outputs, outcomes and impacts hoped for, had been achieved by 2012. 5 Defra PES Pilot Evaluation of the Pumlumon Project 2014 Table 1: Pumlumon Project Anticipated Outputs, Outcomes and Impacts = achieved Service Group Ecosystem Service Outputs Outcomes Impacts Livestock/meat conservation grade beef; Welsh white cattle testing practicality of cattle grazing schemes; changing farm business models; 80% increase in farm Wildlife Trusts for Wales Producer Group; changes income from ‘value added’ beef; Enabling 7farmers to enter to ecological structure and composition of sward into a Glastir agri-environment agreement; improved vegetation. ecological diversity 16ha of sward structure on cattle grazed land. Provisioning Trees/timber/wood fuel tree planting at Maesnant and elsewhere testing the restoration of deciduous tree cover in eventual restoration of partial deciduous cover in the areas of dry heath and acid grassland; making uplands; ecological connectivity; eventual wood fuel better use of on-farm woodland production Water Supply raised water table/increased water storage hydrological monitoring and record keeping; relationship with CEH (feed in data to their database); (5cm rise in water table) engagement with water companies (Dwr Cymru, verifying our data and methodology; potential for funding from Severn Trent) water companies Recreation and Tourism improved visitor access and information e.g. revenue stream to MWT; raised profile; local changing MWT business model, more strategic planning, Dyfi Osprey Project, audio/e- trail; increased wildlife tourism network established better access to grants; local economic impact of increased visitor numbers visitor spend Aesthetic values landscape-scale planning and operation changes in the appearance of some key landscape more attractive landscape settings, greater visual appeal, areas (Allt Ddu, Cors Dyfi) more reasons to visit Cultural Heritage access to wildlife through the medium of Welsh much greater media exposure on radio, TV and covered by Springwatch and other national TV programmes; language; farmers and local residents talking press, including Welsh channels Ministerial visits Cultural on audio trail tracks Education informal education events, volunteering greatly increased presence on social media; establishment of "virtual community" focussed on the Dyfi opportunities informal peer group learning Osprey Project (DOP) but available to wider Pumlumon Project Sense of Place better interpretation of nature reserves interpretation plans for DOP input to Biosphere interpretation strategy Health and employment benefits active recreation opportunities (events, work over 100 volunteers trained, active and ready to go; better procedures in MWT for recording skills and managing parties); increase in number of hours some have found jobs volunteers volunteered Defra PES Pilot Evaluation of the Pumlumon Project 2014 Habitat Provision re-wetting