THE Farmers' Union of Wales strongly believes the Welsh Assembly Government's (WAG) controversial land management scheme Glastir misses an opportunity to make a real difference to climate change, because it ignores the opportunities for withdrawing carbon from managed grazing and, instead, concentrates on tree planting.
But large-scale tree planting is unlikely to be taken up as farmers will be reluctant to see land taken out of production with little gain.
The WAG is keen to promote Glastir as a land management scheme but, the FUW believes, it has failed to 'think outside the box’ to look at opportunities beyond those available under previous agri-environment schemes. This is particularly disappointing given the emerging evidence about the contribution grazing systems can make to carbon uptake.
The FUW is concerned that bringing forward just this one element of Glastir's targeted scheme now could create even more confusion amongst farmers who are already unsure whether they will be able to access this part of the scheme.
One of our major worries has been how difficult it will be for farmers to decide whether to go into the all-Wales element without knowing whether they will be accepted into the targeted element which is based on delivering six objectives including carbon and water storage, water quality, historic environment, biodiversity and access.
The fact that the Rural Affairs Minister this week announced the early start of one of the elements of the scheme reinforces the FUW's view that the current timetable means that insufficient information is available to farmers, who will need to indicate their interest in the scheme's 'targeted element' by ticking a box on their 2010 SAF form within the next few weeks.
Farmers, like any other businessmen, need time to consider what is available to them under the provisions of the scheme before making a long-term business commitment.
The FUW continues to demand a full economic impact assessment of the Glastir scheme in view of the fact the current Tir Mynydd scheme helped to avoid land abandonment and rural depopulation. Unless Glastir is made accessible and simpler there could be severe consequences for Welsh communities and environments, especially in the uplands.
The FUW also has great concern about the current timetable given the diverse problems associated with Glastir on common land and the problems with tenancy issues which are likely to preclude many farmers.