What is the Farming with Nature Landscape Projects Scheme?

The Farming with Nature Landscape Projects (FwNLP) Scheme is designed to support farmers and stakeholders working collaboratively to undertake landscape-scale projects aimed at enhancing biodiversity recovery and habitat connectivity at a landscape or regional level that cannot be delivered on a single farm.

The scheme aims to encourage innovation, with bespoke measures tailored to the specific environmental needs of a proposed project area, rather than being limited to a set list of generic measures which may not be as effective.

Project proposals can cover all types of farmland across Northern Ireland and are not limited to specific sites or areas.

FwNLP will be funded for a period of 5 years to include the development and delivery phases.

The scheme seeks to provide funding to applicants to form landscape-scale groups that will facilitate collaboration on designing, developing and implementing landscape actions. This initiative aligns with Northern Ireland's environmental and agricultural frameworks and serves as an integral component of the Farming with Nature Scheme.

Landscape Projects will be selected based on a Competitive Call, administered by DAERA. Applicants will submit a project proposal that identifies the location, need, objectives, and proposed landscape actions to improve biodiversity and habitat connectivity on a landscape scale. It is proposed that the scheme will provide funding for:

1. The development of the proposed project including administration, habitat assessment and mapping, facilitation, monitoring & evaluation and the delivery of training to farmers.

2. A grant to support the co-design and delivery of bespoke landscape actions tailored to improve biodiversity and habitat connectivity.

3. A yearly participation payment to farmers for attendance at training and other events with an additional payment for taking part in the monitoring of the effects of the bespoke actions on their land.

Project Coordinators will be responsible for setting project objectives, managing group membership, establishing a local steering group, advising and training participants, conducting a habitat quality assessment and creating a baseline habitat map, developing a project plan of bespoke landscape actions, implementing the plan, and publishing data.

Project Coordinators will also be fully responsible for ensuring that all landscape actions set out in the approved project plan are undertaken by the relevant contractors and/or farmers to the required specification and standard. They must ensure that all supporting documentation, including itemised invoices, tender documentation, and any other evidence required to verify expenditure and delivery, is accurate, complete, and submitted to DAERA officials in a timely manner to facilitate the release of project funding.

In developing and implementing bespoke landscape actions, Project Coordinators must ensure that proposed payment rates are proportionate, reasonable, and represent value for money. Where appropriate, payment rates should be benchmarked against comparable actions and payment levels available through other relevant agri-environment, conservation, or land management schemes. Project Coordinators must be able to demonstrate the basis on which costs have been calculated and provide evidence that expenditure is necessary, justified, and delivers value for public funds.

Where inspections, audits, or other verification processes identify that claimed works have not been completed, have not been completed to the required standard, or are not adequately supported by the necessary evidence, DAERA reserves the right to withhold, reduce, recover, or restrict funding. In such circumstances, DAERA may also terminate the project agreement where it considers there has been a material breach of the project requirements or funding conditions.

Back to main page                                              Next topic: Policy Context