Baza danych projektów PROW

Cheviot Futures is the first 'cross-border' Leader project in the Northumberland Uplands and Scottish Borders, fundamentally based on raising awareness of the predicted threats and opportunities of climate change and the actions that should be taken.

The most common threats to farmers' livelihoods exacerbated by climate change are: floods, wind erosion, wildfires and drought. However, for farmers to adopt new techniques to combat these, they need to be assured that they can be integrated into their land management systems without excessive disruption and – ideally - with assured economic viability in the long term. This Leader project was born out of an identified need to encourage openness to new techniques to create greater resilience to climate change and was run by Cheviot Futures in the Northumberland Uplands and Scottish Borders

The project aimed to identify key problems relating to climate change that individual farms face and develop farm resilience plans accordingly. The plans should aim to identify any actions that should be taken to aid the farm in coping with climate change. They should also include emergency planning for possible events, eg floods, to minimise damage and costs. A wider aim was to encourage others in the region to invest in climate change adaptation once the benefits of new techniques were proven.

The project employed a Facilitator to work directly with farmers and landowners in order to aid them in using practices to adapt to the effects of climate change. Actions undertaken included: raising awareness of the predicted threats and opportunities of climate change; adopting practical approaches to land management; sharing best practice to support and, where appropriate, diversify rural businesses; developing and trialling new sustainable solutions to the impacts of climate change.

During this project new trial techniques were suggested and piloted. Knowledge of land issues was shared between farmers and land managers faced with climate change adversities to ensure their businesses remained resilient and viable. This has directly contributed to local farmers to continue underpinning the local rural economy.

This project was innovative in its approach as it encouraged farmers and land managers to take ownership of the project. Specifically the farmers and land managers themselves become ambassadors in their areas for implementing new techniques to tackle climate change effects. This in turn contributes a greater long-term success and sustainability of the project as the participants can continue unaided while also generating a demonstration effect thus encouraging others to adopt similar approaches.

Cheviot Hills, in particular the Northern river catchments in Northumberland and Scottish Borders. This is an inter-territorial cooperation project, where two LAG partners were involved: the Northumberland Uplands LAG and the Scottish Borders LAG.

North East (England)

England

254 220

93 907

160 312

https://www.cheviotfutures.co.uk

Tom Burston

tom.burston@nuleader.eu

+44 1669 622063

English