The Countryside Stewardship Scheme was originally an

agri-environment scheme An environmental management scheme is a mechanism by which landowners and other individuals and bodies responsible for land management can be incentivised to manage their environment. Schemes by country Australia Several schemes (programmes) are ...

run by the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

Government set up in 1991. In its original form it expired in 2014. It was relaunched for the Rural Development Programme England (RDPE) 2014-2020 with £3.1bn of government

subsidy A subsidy or government incentive is a form of financial aid or support extended to an economic sector (business, or individual) generally with the aim of promoting economic and social policy. Although commonly extended from the government, the ter ...

for agriculture and forestry, replacing the previous Environmental Stewardship scheme. Countryside Stewardship: *will contribute around £900 million to help protect and improve our environment. *will be open to all eligible farmers, foresters and land managers *is a competitive targeted scheme, with grants awarded to those who will make the biggest improvements in their local area. *replaces Environmental Stewardship (ES), the English Woodland Grant Scheme (EWGS) and capital grants from the Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) programme. Forestry Commission and Natural England will jointly delivery Countryside Stewardship. Natural England will broadly lead on the set up and delivery of transactional services for Countryside Stewardship for the first year of the new scheme.

Former CSS (1991-2014)

In its first guise introduced as a five-year pilot project by the Countryside Commission in 1991, the scheme aimed to improve the environmental value of farmland throughout

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. The administration of the scheme was taken over by the

Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food An agriculture ministry (also called an) agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister ...

(MAFF) on 1 April 1996, and the scheme expanded to include new landscapes and features, including whole farm plans for restoring and recreating traditional walls and ditches, wildlife corridors in arable areas using uncropped margins in arable fields (with management to benefit associated wild flowers and birds), traditional buildings, and old meadows and pastures (important for maintaining and increasing biodiversity). In the meantime, the scheme was incorporated under the umbrella of the

European Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lis ...

's 'agri-environment’ programme which aims to protect the environment and the countryside through the promotion of green farming practices, which enabled grants to be part-funded through the Community. The scheme was incorporated into the England Rural Development Programme on 1 January 2000. In 2005, there were 16,636 agreement holders with 531,280 hectares under agreement.Defra.gov.uk
, Countryside Stewardship and Environmentally Sensitive Areas Schemes: Report on performance 2003/04 and 2004/05 page 4 The Countryside Stewardship Scheme closed to new applications in 2004 with the introduction of the

Environmental stewardship (England) Environmental Stewardship is an agri-environment scheme run by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in England which aims to secure widespread environmental benefits. It was formally launched on 18 March 2005, although the fir ...

Scheme. Existing agreements continue to be honoured; the last agreements will expire in 2014. The scheme is currently administered by staff at Natural England.

References

External links

Forestry Commission 2015 Webinar

GOV.UK Countryside Stewardship main page
Conservation in the United Kingdom United Kingdom environmental management schemes {{agri-stub