22 April 2024
To mark World Heritage Day we are considering what World Heritage Site status means for farming, climate and nature in the Lake District.
In the years ahead, climate change has the potential to adversely impact the special qualities and attributes that make the Lake District a World Heritage Site. Climate change adaptation is a UK government priority and the Lake District National Park Partnership as it’s one of the key outcomes to achieve a net zero national park by 2037 And it’s also an opportunity to look at inter-related issues around nature recovery and how to sustain farming traditions that care for this outstanding landscape.
The Lake District is already experiencing more erratic weather patterns. Disastrous floods in 2009 and 2015, and drought in 2010 are just a few examples.
Statutory flood risk management authorities in Cumbria are working closely with local communities through a Cumbria Strategic Flood Partnership (CSFP). It brings together a wide range of statutory, academic, community and NGO organisations too. In 2022, a Cumbria Local Flood Risk Management Strategy was published with £200 million now allocated for flood and climate resilience programmes up to 2027.
All paths that rangers work on have to be made more resilient to cope with future weather events. On the upland fells, this important work to repair erosion is supported through our partnership project Fix the Fells.
Natural flood management projects have clear benefits for people and nature and for the World Heritage Site. Many are being assessed on how they can make local communities more resilient to flooding and mitigate for climate change. Examples include the creation of leaky dams, peat, scrub, and wood pasture restoration.
Community interest companies such as Ullswater CIC are also being created to address flood risks. The CIC brings locals, farmers, land managers and flood risk experts together, combining expertise in flood risk with local knowledge of land management. The Partnership that looks after the World Heritage Site is supporting the Lake District Foundation in exploring other opportunities that will encourage more of this type of collaborative community action.
At the time of World Heritage Site inscription in 2017, the vulnerability of the Lake District’s agro-pastoral traditions was recognised. Since then, much has been done to develop farm-supporting policies and funding schemes that sustain and compensate the farming community for producing and caring for this outstanding cultural landscape.
A key example is the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Lake District National Park Partnership (LDNPP) developing policies that support local farmers and the traditional farming system. And DEFRA’s recent announcement (July 2023) about payments to hill farmers, which underpin the viability of upland farming in places like the Lake District.
Another funding initiative is ‘Farming in Protected Landscapes’ funding (FiPL). With £3m being made available to farmers and landowners who want to take forward actions linked to four themes benefiting climate, nature, people and place. Due to conclude in March 2025, the funding has already delivered incredibly diverse projects. They range from renovating a traditional barn to farm diversification and curlew rescue action. They also include projects that reflect local farming culture such as creating valley tweeds from local fleeces.
Curlew recovery project funded by Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) project
Maria Benjamin from Dodgson Wood, Nibthwaite Grange Farm is creating 13 new local tweeds and cloth, using wool sourced from 13 Lake District valleys. It’s a legacy project connecting people to the history and culture of wool production in the Lakes. Importantly, farmers get a good price for their wool plus 10% of the profit from the sale of the cloth. FiPL funding supports the production of the first four tweeds.
Maria explains how her business brings together farming, cultural heritage, and sustainable production, to supports farmers and value the local economy. For her, FiPL is a partnership aligning vision and values. Maria said:
“I thought this project would grow slowly and the two tons of wool I had processed in the first year for the first four valley tweeds and throws, would last around three years but it looks like I will have to re-think the plan and increase the volumes of wool processed next year and going forward.
"It’s very exciting and I’ve had such lovely feedback from customers. They love the concept and the quality of the products, so I feel immensely proud.
"Without the FIPL funding, I would not have had the money to invest in making the first four tweeds and at a scale which would mean I could make the tweed affordable.”
Help in securing the future of upland farming on commons is also on hand through a three-year, £3m project, ‘Our Common Cause: Our Upland Commons’. Concluding this year (2024), the Lake District, is one of four areas in England to benefit, with input from 25 partners.
And the National Trust’s Future Farming Programme includes their 90, in and around the World Heritage Site. It ensures decisions affecting hill farm reletting and management include an understanding of cultural heritage and seek to sustain the Outstanding Universal Values that make the area a World Heritage Site.
There’s also a new Environmental Land Management scheme, which includes steps to understand how the scheme impacts on the viability and importance of shepherding traditions.
Windermere, has a special place in the hearts of many people, both locally and around the world. In the coming years, issues like too many nutrients in the lake, climate change, and seasonal variations in tourism are predicted to put the lake and its water quality under increasing pressure.
Launched in July 2022, the Love Windermere partnership is the biggest ever cooperation of sectors with locals, businesses, communities, and groups taking the role of citizen scientists. The focus is a lake that is clean and healthy for people and nature. That includes good water quality and rich biodiversity in its upstream catchment and downstream waterbodies. Improvements in land and water management will make the catchment more resilient to the impacts of climate change. And the lake can continue to support the local economy as well as the wellbeing of its communities.
Love Windermere is developing a science-based road map for environmental protection, focusing on sewage, science and data, land use and community engagement.
We recognise that this won’t be solved overnight but it’s encouraging that all partners are fully committed to tackling this critical issue.
The Love Windermere Partnership, consisting of United Utilities, the Environment Agency, Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership, South Cumbria Rivers Trust, Lake District Foundation, National Trust, and others are working on developing an evidence-based plan to bring about a healthier future for the lake and the surrounding area, balancing the needs of nature, the community and the local economy. But there is more to do.
There is a huge opportunity to restore nature in the Lake District. About 10 per cent of the area of the Lake District National Park is currently managed for nature’s recovery and a mix of other public goods by a range of partners and land managers. Sustainable farming practices drive much of this.
The National Trust Farm at Tilberthwaite is one of many excellent examples of them maintaining heft and commons practices, so still keeping sheep and protected heft and commons practice but improving their local habitats at the same time.
And at a very local level, groups like the Cumbria Beaver Group show how we can begin to take steps to restore populations of lost species in the National Park.
A major catchment-wide initiative is bringing nature recovery and biodiversity benefits.
Biodiversity Net Gain is also another example of the law requiring development to increase the biodiversity of an area by 10 per cent more. This ensures the area is left in a better state than it was prior to completion of the project. Developers can achieve biodiversity net gain by mitigating biodiversity loss, enhancing biodiversity, retaining habitat types, and protecting assets of strategic significance.
