LUC is close to completing its first year working under a Natural England and Defra contract to resurvey 550 Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) and Countryside Stewardship (CS) Agreements. Our team has completed the survey design and is coming to the end of the first season of survey work. Survey work is a collaboration between all of LUC’s disciplines, with all surveys feeding into a GIS database that will underpin the multi-year survey work.

The project supports Natural England in understanding the efficiency and user experience of existing schemes. This will allow them to conduct evidence-based planning for public funding options for Environmental Land Management Schemes and decide on the best scheme design for the future.

LUC is leading this three-year monitoring project in partnership with the Countryside and Community Research Institute (University of Gloucestershire) and Environment Systems Ltd.

Our specialist surveyors across the three consultancies are teaming up to use their diverse knowledge and skills to deliver this cross-cutting project. We are assessing how agri-environment schemes are delivering for biodiversity, landscape, historic environment and resource protection outcomes.

We will also examine how schemes are contributing to the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change on agreement land and how the delivery of environmental outcomes has changed over time.

Learn more about Landscape Planning & Assessment at LUC.