Some of our friends from the Calder Catchment Partnership (including many SOURCE partners) have released an excellent new video about freely available NFM advice services. We hope it will encourage lots of local landowners to take up the offer!
Very cold, wintry weather conditions didn’t deter local farm advisors and landowners from joining us to record this video to help get across an important message.
Even though the EU Basic Payment Scheme for farmers is finishing, there are still alternative funding opportunities and a breadth of support to match them up to different funding pots, both capital and maintenance payments for introducing Nature Based Solutions (NBS) and Natural Flood Management (NFM).
Landowners can get advice from local farm advisors within local voluntary organisations on alternative sources of funding for managing their land in a way that reduces flooding in the catchment. They can also get independent, practical and bespoke advice about designing and implementing the best measures to suit their land from people who know their area.
This video showcases the wide range of NFM interventions and land management options available and their benefits. There is no one size fits all, there are many solutions dependant on each type of land – it all depends on where the farm is? what type of farm it is? what the farmer is interested in doing? and what they want to achieve?
There are different drivers as to why the farmers and landowners are interested in doing this work. NFM has multiple benefits – it not only reduces flooding but may also improve water quality and biodiversity.
The video features advisors from Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Wild Trout Trust Calder Rivers Trust and Colne Rivers Trust, River Holme Connections and the Environment Agency.
Farmers and landowners in the Calder and upper Aire catchments talk about why they have engaged and how their land and farms are benefiting from the support they received to manage their land to achieve agricultural and environmental benefits, including measures to help reduce flooding in the catchment.
Participants in a workshop held at the WY FLIP’s Annual General Meeting, in May 2023, made it a priority to highlight advice and funding available to landowner and farmers for introducing Nature Based Solutions on their land by using trusted advisors.
Officers from the Environment Agency then developed the idea of producing this video. They worked with the partner organisations to create compelling messages and select sites to demonstrate the potential for managing the land for multiple environmental benefits.
The video was funded by the West Yorkshire Flood Innovation Programme (WY FLIP) and its aim is to show the benefits and different types of NFM.
We have worked with Dan Waters from Adarak to produce three versions of this video:-
- 10 minute video that can be shown at events or in meetings to landowners
three minute video, which could be more useful to a wider audience - one minute video to use on social media to raise awareness of its existence.
They are available on our website alongside useful contacts for support. Here’s the three minute video to give you a flavour.
The West Yorkshire Flood Innovation Programme (WY FLIP) is a collaborative, innovative programme to reduce the impact of flooding and climate change in the region. Its board commissioned a rather clever animation to explain what it’s all about.
Five lead Local Flood Authorities West Yorkshire launched the programme. The Environment Agency and West Yorkshire Combined Authority are also partners, they have support from local stakeholders including academic partners, community based groups, Third Sector organisations and Yorkshire Water. Yorkshire Integrated Catchment Solutions Programme (iCASP) based at the University of Leeds, provides scientific lead, ensuring the latest research is embedded into new techniques employed across the region and provides an evaluation framework.
There are five themes within the programme and one of them is Nature Based Solutions, which the video is part of, involving working with nature for a better flood and ecosystem resilience.
Calderdale Council leads on this theme with an aim to develop solutions and answer questions that currently represent gaps around areas related to planning, governance and long-term funding and management. It is also to promote better recognition and communication of the benefits of NFM and wider NBS for landowners, communities, investors and local authorities.
You can read about the priorities within this theme.
For queries about the video or the WY FLIP programme, contact by email icasp@leeds.ac.uk
Blog by Cath Seal, communications officer for Yorkshire Integrated Solutions Programme providing support to WY FLIP.
