Environmental Stewardship is England’s primary agrienvironment scheme and the largest element of the Rural Development Programme for England, with a budget in 2013/14 of £447 million. The scheme provides funding to farmers and other land managers in England to deliver effective environmental management on their land. One of the primary objectives of the scheme is the conservation and enhancement of landscape character.

The first of the two linked contracts sought to develop and deliver an objective and repeatable field survey methodology, across a representative sample of sites in England, to assess how the scheme is delivering its landscape conservation objective. The second contract used analysis of GIS data on the stock of landscape features and uptake of ES options to predict the landscape impact of ES and future schemes in each of England’s 159 National Character Areas (NCAs).

The application of landscape planning principles insured consistent use of landscape descriptors (for both characteristics and condition) and reference to established best practice, including the method of Landscape Character Assessment. Landscape management skills ensured full understanding of the effects of practical land management actions on landscape character and condition consistent use of landscape descriptors (for both characteristics and condition) and reference to establish best practice, including the method of Landscape Character

This project is significant in three main ways:

• Firstly it has a national scale and scope, influencing the management of over 70% of England’s farmland on over 52,000 individual farms and holdings (the area covered by Environmental Stewardship agreements).

• Secondly, it puts the monitoring of landscape character and condition on the same scientifically robust and repeatable footing as other
environmental objectives such as biodiversity and
water quality.

• Finally, it is influencing national policy and  programmes in ways that should enhance England’s landscape, for the widest public benefit. The results have been used by Defra to help design and anticipate the distributional impacts of a successor scheme to Environmental Stewardship. The field survey monitoring work is continuing in 2014 with a rapid survey of 300 new sites across England.