William Worsley, CLA and Local Landowner delivered a presentation on the role of landowners in delivering Lawton in conjunction with AONB partnerships.

1. William Worsley
CLA and Local Landowner

2. The role of landowners in
delivering Lawton in
conjunction with AONB
partnerships
William Worsley

3. Change in the environment is not
new, and is not the issue. What
is new and of great concern is
the pace and scale of the
changes that modern society
now places on the environment

4. This will require strong leadership
from government, but is not a job for
government alone.

5. It will require effective and positive engagement
with the landowners and land managers.
And it will need improved collaboration between
local authorities, local communities, statutory
agencies, the voluntary and private sectors,
farmers, other land-managers and individual
citizens.

6. In recent times, management of land has
often focused on the delivery of a single
process or ecosystem service – food, for
example, or timber.

7. As human impact on the environment
increases, we will need to learn how to
manage land (and water) to deliver multiple
services from a given area so that, for
example, we achieve profitable and
productive farming whilst at the same time
adopting practices which enhance carbon
storage and slow the flow of flood waters and
support wildlife.

8. It is obvious that statutory agencies with responsibility for the
environment, and the voluntary conservation sector will both play a
key role in delivering our vision.
Just as important, however, is the role of private landowners, land
managers and farmers, many of whom invest resources in
enhancing wildlife over and beyond the funding they receive through
incentive schemes.
It is therefore important to engage effectively and positively with this
sector. Our vision will only be achieved if society recognises the
realities of managing the land and the true costs involved.
If we decide as a society what we want, and put the right incentives
in place, then the private land sector will provide many of the
solutions.

9. Private land has enormous potential to deliver
many of the enhancements to the network that are
needed. Just as landowners can play an important
role as effective stewards of existing wildlife
habitats, we believe that they should also be
properly rewarded to do more to create new
habitats.

10. This is a long-term commitment. Extending existing tax
incentives to encourage the creation, improvement and
long-term maintenance of wildlife habitats out of private
resources would, we believe, be justified by the resulting
environmental and social benefits.
Landowners could be encouraged to respond to the
challenge by the promise of reliefs from capital taxation no
more generous than those that farmers and the owners of
family businesses have been routinely allowed for many
years. Income tax incentives might also play a useful part.

11. Lawton Report - Recommendation 20. Government
should consider extending tax incentives to
encourage landowners to make long-term
commitments to the creation of new wildlife habitats
that benefit ecological networks.

12. AONB - With their origins in the 1949 National
Parks and Access to the Countryside Act, AONBs
are designated primarily to conserve and enhance
the natural beauty of the landscape. They also have
two secondary aims: to meet the need for quiet
enjoyment of the countryside and to have regard for
the interests of those who live and work within them.
11.8% of the area of AONBs is also SSSI

13. Key messages
1. The value of looking at environmental land
management on a landscape scale and the important
role that estates play in this, as they have large areas
of land under the management control of one owner
2. The importance of understanding the realities of
managing the land and the true costs involved
3. Work with landowners and encourage, help and
support them – the value of AONBs as facilitators