WILDLIFE
- life
find food and shelter at all times of
the year; insects such as bumblebees,
hoverflies and butterflies will thrive,
allowing pollination and feeding
on crop pests; dormice will find
corridors through hedgerows to
travel and feed and water voles
will find a wide variety of food in
unpolluted ditches.
If these measures are adopted
by a wide range of farmers across
the Island then the landscape in 20
years time may not have changed
greatly at a glance but the thicker
hedgerows, grassy field margins and
wet pastures will become far richer
in both common and rare Island
wildlife.
How it will
livelihoods?
Photo: Dormouse - Andy Rothwell
new CAP reforms whilst sharing
similar problems in isolation,
increased transport costs and lack of
processing and marketing facilities.
The Island’s wildlife and landscape
is special. Half of the land surface
is designated as AONB and one
tenth is a designated Sites of Special
Scientific Interest. It is a national
stronghold for red squirrels,
dormice, water voles and Bechstein’s
bats; it is one of the last places
in Britain you can find Glanville
fritillary
butterflies,
reddish
buff moth, wood calamint, field
cowwheat and Martin’s Ramping
fumitory.
The Island’s coastline is one of
the most spectacular and wildliferich in southern England with both
soft and hard cliffs and sheltered
harbours. And the Island has no
wild deer, grey squirrels or mink,
which means native species thrive
in woodlands and rivers.
All this is in no small part due to
the sympathetic management of the
countryside by the great majority
of landowners. The Wight Wildlife
Partnership is committed to helping
them as they help wildlife to help
itself.
Two-thirds of the Island is
undeveloped
and
remains
countryside, managed by a wide
variety of individuals, partnerships,
co-operatives and organisations.
How the Isle of Wight is
farmed
Traditionally the Island was split
into three regions dominated by
the chalk ridge which runs from the
Needles in the west to Culver Down
in the east. North of this ridge are
heavy clays which supported beef
and dairy farming and created
a landscape of small pastures,
hedgerows and woodlands.
The chalk grassland – the downs
– was managed by sheep grazing,
a tradition going back to medieval
times and the wool trade centred in
mainland Winchester.
To the south of the chalk the
lighter sandy soils allowed arable
farming with large fields and more
intensive agriculture. Recently
the number of dairy herds has
declined on the Island and horses
have replaced cattle in many grazed
landscapes.
What’s going to change?
The Countryside Stewardship
Scheme, launched in 1990 by the
national government, encouraged
farmers to reduce chemical inputs
and
intensive
management
to conserve wildlife and the
landscape. The nationwide success
of this scheme led to the launch
in March 2005 of the new Entry
Level Stewardship Scheme. All
farmers are eligible to payments
from government if they carry
out wildlife-friendly management
including cutting hedges less
frequently, reducing or stopping
chemical inputs and providing
undisturbed areas for food and
shelter for insects, birds and
mammals.
These measures have been brought
about by a change in direction which
reforms the Common Agricultural
Policy. Money to pay for the
production of food is now redirected
to the management of land and
environmental enhancements.
impact
on
As a result the number of animals
or the amount of crops on any one
field will be reduced. The reduction
in the profitability of farming was
already hitting 6