Plantlife - Arable Plants Project

The aim of Plantlife’s Arable Plants Project (funded by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and English Nature) is twofold:
(i) to identify the best sites for arable plants: Important Arable Plant Areas; and
(ii) to implement a programme to conserve the best sites.

Phase I – Important Arable Plant areas (IAPA’s) in the UK: conserving the threatened flora of flower-rich cornfields.

The aims of this project were to mobilise botanists, agronomists, farm advisors, and farmers, to identify important arable plant areas according to strict criteria. Thereby providing a springboard to improve the formal protection of the most valuable sites and inform those developing agri-environment schemes to promote a more sustainably managed countryside.

This was achieved by developing an inventory of the most important areas for arable flowers in the UK. Click for full details on Important Arable Plant Areas

Phase II – The Conservation of Flower Rich Cornfields

The follow on from Phase I in which important sites were identified was Phase II, which acts to conserve these sites through targeted stewardship.

Plantlife are currently running Phase II of the project in partnership with FWAG. Targeting farms identified as Important Arable Plant Areas and advising them to choose the appropriate arable options within Entry and Higher Level Stewardship.

Under the co-ordination of an Arable Plants Officer, FWAG officers in five rich and diverse counties (Wiltshire, Hampshire, Cornwall, Worcestershire, Cambridge/Herefordshire) will target a total of 50 species-rich farms throughout the course of the two-year project (ending October 2007).

FWAG are also holding six training events across the five counties to advise on arable plants and conservation management though Stewardship. The events diary is as follows:

In addition to providing targeted advise in conjunction with training events, other project aims include:

• Progress with the IAPA work, including further site survey and development of the database, plus testing of the criteria.
• Investigate and research the management techniques available through stewardship; Monitoring how effective they are at conserving plants and also looking at how problem weeds can be controlled effectively. This experimental work is being carried out at Plantlife’s reserve farm, Ranscombe in Kent and also in partnership with Worcestershire Wildlife Trust at Lower Smite Farm.
• Plantlife (as lead partner for 11 arable species and chair/secretariat of the Arable Plants Group) and FWAG will both continue to monitor the new Stewardship schemes in these early years ready to make the necessary representations on policy when the scheme is reviewed.
• Although Environmental Stewardship, especially the Entry Level Scheme focuses on arable plant conservation at field margins. Environmental management on a much wider field or farm scale setting could deliver more. Part of this project is to look to find locations and build partnerships where such whole farm scale conservation can be practiced.