How Dorset Wildlife Trust is taking action in each of the five areas we are asking candidates to address (using the 200 word limit per question as requested of candidates).

Q: What role do you see for environmentally friendly farming in Dorset’s food production?
 

• The Living Landscape approach, outlined in our actions on climate change, very much looks at whole landscapes and their management, and seeks a wildlife-friendly but economically viable future.
   
• We see our nature reserves as some of the ‘jewels’ in Dorset’s landscape, but they are often set within farmed countryside which is just as wildlife-rich. Dorset Wildlife Trust reserves can play a role in both explaining why management such as grazing is important and drawing in visitors as potential customers for local businesses.
   
• Dorset Wildlife Trust has long worked closely with the farming community, providing advice on habitat management for our most special sites and helped farms enter grant schemes for this work. The Sites of Nature Conservation Interest project has over 1200 sites listed in both urban and rural parts of the county, and we offer advice to over 800 mostly private owners and managers of these sites.
   
• We have been running a project in West Dorset - ‘Pastures New’ - which takes forward the Living Landscapes approach. We have had considerable success through this, for example setting up grazing brokerage and a machinery ring to make it easier to get wildlife-rich sites managed sensitively.

Imogen Davenport
Director of Conservation