Action 41
"A small Working Group made up of environmental and
farming interests will be set up to examine the
environmental issues which will impact on farming and food
processing businesses over the next 5-10 years and to
advise on how best to tackle them. This Group will take
evidence from interested organisations and will be
supported by the Executive. It will report within 6 months
of being set up."
Progress
The Agriculture and Environment Working Group (AEWG) was
established and their report, Custodians of Change, was
published in June 2002.
The report concluded that the priority environmental
issues for Scottish Agriculture for the next 5-10 years
were:
- diffuse pollution to water
- biodiversity and habitat
protection
- landscape change
The Executive produced its response to Custodians of
Change in February 2003 and gave a commitment to producing
annual progress reports. The AEWG received updates on
progress in June 2003 and June 2004; a third report will be
submitted in 2005.
Some key achievements are listed below:
- Continuing support for
participants in the ESA scheme
- Dissemination to all farmers of a
range of good practice advice on preventing
pollution
- Revision of the Rural Stewardship
Scheme to enable more farmers to participate and to
facilitate collaborative actions
- Development of Cross Compliance
requirements and Land Management Contracts (LMC) Tier 2
prescriptions under CAP reform
- Substantial reform of support for
organic farming
- Launch of a new Whole Farm Review
scheme
- Measures to promote biodiversity
and landscape value
- Measures to improve the water
environment
Links
- Custodians of Change
report:-
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/agri/aewg-00.asp
- Scottish Executive
response:-
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/environment/coch-00.asp
Action 41 is regarded as complete in that the
AEWG was set up and has produced its report. However,
action towards achieving the overarching objectives of
the report is continuing.
Previous Action
Next Action