Farming in Protected Landscapes

From a community plant nursery to mob grazing, find out more about some of the projects that received funding in 2022-23.

Click the links below to read more about the 2021/22 projects:

1. The Central Chilterns Farmer Cluster hedgerow project: eight farms worked together to make impressive achievements in landscape scale habitat creation.
2. Ivinghoe Aston traditional orchard: the planting of 350 new fruit trees to increase biodiversity and sequester carbon.
3. Enabling growth for Countryways CIC: more people with learning difficulties and health challenges have benefitted from contact with farming.

If an applicant will not make a commercial gain through a project, they could receive up to 100% of the costs.

Where an applicant would benefit commercially from a project, they could receive between 40% and 80% of the costs through the programme, depending on how much commercial benefit the project will give them.

The programme will work alongside – not in competition with – Defra’s existing and new schemes, adding value where it is most needed. If a potential project can be rewarded through those schemes instead, you will be made aware of them.

If an activity is equivalent to one under Countryside Stewardship (CS), the programme payment rate will be the same as the CS rate. If not, we will base programme funding offers on the projected costs of an activity (with final payments made against evidenced costs).

Capital infrastructure assets (including, but not limited to, fences, gates, building restoration), should be maintained for five years from the date of completion.

Machinery assets (for example a brush harvester for grassland restoration) should be maintained for five years from the date of purchase.

The requirement to maintain natural, cultural and access activities (for example, management of grassland, restoration of a historic feature) delivered as part of programme will cease no later than 1 April 2024.

Before applying, we would encourage you to read the guidance for applicants and to contact us to discuss your ideas and potential application.  

If you would like to proceed, please complete an application form. We are now considering applications for funding in Year 3 (ending March 2024) and Year 4 (ending March 2025). Applications can include spending in both years.  All projects must end by March 2025.

Your project must also help to deliver at least one of the Strategic Objectives of the Chilterns National Landscape Management Plan. 

• Applications for over £10,000 will be judged by a Local Assessment Panel.
• The Local Assessment Panel will be made up of eight to 12 people. It will include representatives from the Chilterns National Landscape, Natural England, representatives from the farming and land management community, and land management and ecology specialists.
• We expect that the panel will meet to make decisions every six to eight weeks.
• Applications for less than £10,000 will be decided upon by a senior member of the National Landscape team (who has no prior knowledge of the project).

If approved, a brief summary of your project will be published here on the Chilterns National Landscape website (as required by Defra) in order to share information on how funding is being used. The list showcases the impressive variety of projects being delivered in the Chilterns through the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme and represents a significant amount of hard work and commitment on the part of the applicants.