FWAG Advisors Evaluation of Factors Motivating Farmers to Undertake Farm Conservation Activities

Report to the Committee of Inquiry on Hunting with Dogs

Countryside & Community Research Unit

Cheltenham & Gloucester College of HE

Cheltenham

Background

The CCRU was asked to undertake a quick survey of county FWAG advisors to provide information on the relative importance of hunting in farmers’ conservation activities. Michael Winter of the CCRU and a member of the Hunting Inquiry wrote a covering letter to FWAG advisors. He devised the single question for advisors in consultation with Jane Mills and Chris Short of the CCRU. The letter and question are reproduced in an Appendix to this report.

The results were collated and analysed by Chris Short and Ruth McShane.

Richard Knight and Gill Hopkinson of FWAG’s national office kindly facilitated the survey.

FWAG

The Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group is one of the main specialist providers of nature conservation advice to farmers in England. The advisers in place in each county spend a considerable proportion of their time talking to farmers about their farming and conservation activities. They have a very keen awareness of the factors that farmers take into consideration when making decisions about conservation activities.

Survey Results

The FWAG advisors were asked to put in rank order a set of nine factors that might motivate farmers to undertake conservation activity in their own particular county. The CCRU team, on the basis of their own knowledge of farming and conservation, devised the list. The advisors were asked to undertake the exercise for each of seven key aspects of conservation activity.

A low average score indicates a high level of importance. It should be noted that any factors not given a score by advisors as not applicable or irrelevant were scored 10 in our analysis.

The summary results are given in the table below and show that hunting was of relatively low importance alongside other factors such as agri-environment schemes, with the exception of woodland management where it ranked fourth in importance and woodland management (fifth). However in some counties hunting was seen as the second or third most important factor encouraging farmers to manage woodland for conservation or plant new woods.

It is important to recognise that these are the views of a small number of people. However FWAG advisors are uniquely well placed to make judgements of this kind. The results seem to indicate that for woodland management, hunting may well continue to have some importance as an activity that motivates farmers to take particular actions in some places.

Table Summary results

Appendix. Copy of letter and Question.

Dear FWAG adviser

Richard Knight has kindly agreed to email this to all FWAG advisers. Richard is supportive of this

piece of research and I am grateful to him for his assistance. I would be enormously grateful for a few minutes of your time. Some of you will know me as a FWAG supporter over many years and also as someone who has conducted research on FWAG’s important role in providing farm conservation advice. Indeed, I am currently doing some more research work on this topic for English Nature. However, in this instance I am writing to you in my capacity as a member of the Government’s Committee of Inquiry into Hunting chaired by Lord Burns. We need some information on the relative importance of different factors that might motivate farmers to undertake conservation activities.

Below you will a find form setting out some of the key factors. I would be enormously grateful if you could spend a few minutes completing the form for each of the landscape features or habitat types indicated.

Please score each column on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being the most important) indicating which you consider to be the important factors motivating farmers to undertake conservation activity in your county for each of the key features indicated. We realize that no two farmers are the same so we are asking for your general assessment of the relative importance of the factors listed for the farmers you deal with.

You do not have to use every motivation for every feature. If you feel that a particular motivation is of no relevance please record "Na" (not applicable). Also do feel free to highlight other motivations if you consider them relevant.

I realize this is a particularly busy time of year for you, and I can only ask that you find a few minutes to deal with this. The Hunting Inquiry is due to report to the Home Secretary by the end of May, so a response from you by the 19^th May would be very helpful. Please, upon completion of the form, return the file to jmills@chelt.ac.uk.

With thanks in anticipation

Professor Michael Winter

Countryside & Community Research Unit

CGCHE

Francis Close Hall

Cheltenham GL50 4AZ

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Date uploaded to website 7 June 2000