Natural England

Natural England offers free land management advice to farmers, advisers and others on a range of environmental and related topics.

Advice is currently given under two different programmes, each focused regionally to meet local needs:

• Land Management Advisory Service
• England Catchment Sensitive Farming Delivery Initiative

Land Management Advisory Service

Our new Land Management Advisory Service is designed to help farmers and other land managers, including managers of urban green space, to improve their land management for the benefit of wildlife, landscape, public access and other environmental purposes. The service is provided mainly through land management advice events such as farm walks, workshops, clinics and farm visits.

We aim to provide a cohesive and effective service that meets the needs of land managers and helps deliver Natural England’s strategic outcomes. We work closely with other organisations that provide advice programmes, and we ensure that our advice reflects the most recent research and ideas, and is practical and commercially realistic.

The Land Management Advisory Service is co-ordinated and supported by national specialists and project managers but is largely delivered by regional staff led by Natural England’s regional Project Managers for Farm Advice.

The service currently covers the following areas:

• Cross Compliance
• Environmental Stewardship
• Organic Conversion Information Service
• Environmentally sustainable land management
• Conservation grazing

Cross Compliance

We provide advice on the basic environmental and other standards that farmers must meet to comply with the Single Payment Scheme. This part of the service is currently delivered by Momenta under contract to Natural England, on behalf of Defra, Environment Agency, Animal Health and the Rural Payments Agency. See www.crosscompliance.org.uk

Environmental Stewardship

We offer advice on both Entry Level Stewardship and on Organic Entry Level Stewardship, as well as on Higher Level Stewardship, to help farmers and other land managers decide whether or not to apply, and if they do wish to apply, how to go about it. This includes moving into Environmental Stewardship from expiring Countryside Stewardship and ESA (Environmentally Sensitive Area) agreements. We also offer advice to those who already have Environmental Stewardship agreements, to help them implement them successfully and achieve the best possible environmental results.

This advice is delivered both by Natural England staff and through a contract with ADAS.

Organic Conversion Information Service

We provide free organic conversion advice to help farmers and land managers in England consider the practical implications of converting their business to organic production. This service includes giving some advice on Organic Entry Level Stewardship.

Environmentally sustainable land management

We provide advice on subjects such as climate change adaptation and mitigation, public access, and forging better links with local communities. Please contact your regional Project Manager for more information on these.

Conservation grazing

We provide advice about conservation grazing through GAP, a UK-wide partnership network of practitioners and advisers from the nature conservation, agricultural and livestock sectors.

Further information

For general information about the Service, please contact:
Diane Spence,
Natural England, Woodthorne, Wergs Road, Wolverhampton WV6 8TQ
Telephone: 07768 176311
Email: Diane.Spence@naturalengland.org.uk

England Catchment Sensitive Farming Delivery Initiative

This advice programme aims to reduce the pollution of surface-water bodies caused by farming operations, and is delivered in partnerhsip with Defra and the Environment Agency. The initiative is part of the national response to meet the requirements of the Water Framework Directive and will contribute towards achieving Natura 2000 objectives and the SSSI PSA target. A dedicated network of expert advisers (Catchment Sensitive Farming Officers), operating in 40 priority catchments, are on hand to help farmers tackle the causes of harmful water pollution.

For more information see The England Catchment Sensitive Farming Delivery Initiative (ECSFDI)

Project Managers for Farm Advice

All advice activities are co-ordinated regionally by Natural England Project Managers for Farm Advice. Land management advice events can be found through the regional links below or clicking the map above.

Region	Contact	Direct dial
East of England	Alan Bullivant	01371 876451
East Midlands	Jonathan Marsden	01433 659378
North East	Sue Harrison	0191 229 3074
North West	Alex Lowe	01270 754127
South East	Charles Orrell	01233 811234
South West	Dave Crabb	01823 281814
West Midlands	Steve Bellingham	01905 362988
Yorkshire and the Humber	David Stirling	01609 767428