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New funds for farmers looking to conserve turtle doves
6 January 2021 |
The RSPB’s project will pilot a new way of funding habitat creation for farmland species
More than £300,000 has been made available to farmers in East Anglia looking to help with turtle dove conservation.
The conservation work is aimed at saving the critically endangered turtle dove, one of the UK’s most iconic farmland birds.
A new funding mechanism is being trialled to allocate a total of £320,000 to landowners providing feeding plots and other habitat improvements in Norfolk and Suffolk.
The RSPB’s project will pilot a new way of funding habitat creation for farmland species through ‘reverse auctions’ as part of the UK s new Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS).
£320,000 has been made available for farmers in Norfolk to protect the birds
6 January 2021 • 2:34pm
Turtle dove numbers have plummeted by 98 per cent since the 1970s
Credit: Getty Images Contributor/ Mike Powles
The first pilot scheme for the post-Brexit farm subsidy plans will involve paying farmers to take care of turtle doves.
The government is looking to trial reverse auction schemes, where farms bid to receive funding, showing how they would protect a particular species on their land.
A new scheme for farmers in East Anglia means the winning bidders will have access to £320,000 to save the bird, which has faced a 98 per cent decline since the 1970s.