COP28: INNOVATIVE FARMING OFFERS HOPE FOR FARMERS AND PLANET NR

HEADLINE: COP28:  INNOVATIVE FARMING OFFERS HOPE FOR FARMERS AND PLANET
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STORY:

Innovative farming methods are unlocking new streams of income and creating resilient solutions to the climate crisis for farmers in the East of England who are working on a groundbreaking project piloting nature-based solutions on their land.

The Wendling Beck Environment  Project is a 2000 acre pioneering habitat creation, nature restoration and regenerative agriculture initiative.  It is made possible by new financial mechanisms introduced by the British government to protect and restore biodiversity in nature. 

Over the last four years the eastern county of Norfolk in England has endured the coldest winter, the wettest summer, the driest and hottest summer and the wettest spring on record - impacting farmer yields, food security and biodiversity. 

Traditional, intensive ways of farming are leading to smaller crop yields and less wildlife on their farms.  

The UK government is introducing new policies to promote and prioritise biodiversity and regenerative farming. The new Environment Act, introduced to protect and restore biodiversity in nature,  requires Biodiversity Net Gain in all developments to ensure that habitat for wildlife is in a better state after projects, than before.  

These new government policies have created a huge business opportunity for the farmers.  By farming regeneratively they have accessed finance for creating new, and enhancing existing habitats.  Wildlife is protected, food security is improved, and nature thrives.  It’s an approach to financing natural solutions to the climate and biodiversity crisis  that could provide a blueprint to others.

In the last 18 months, the project has restored 10% of the 2,000 acres in its remit. The team’s vision is to create a diverse mosaic of different habitats, lowland heath, grassland  and wetlands.  It will restore 5 kilometres of river and will sequester 250,000 tonnes of carbon.

As world leaders gather in the  UAE for COP28, to present how they have been addressing the climate crisis, these farmers are providing inspiration. Not only for other farmers but also for policymakers deciding how to finance the climate and biodiversity solutions we urgently need to deliver on the Paris Agreement

SHOT LIST - all shot by Matt Mullholland in Wendling Beck, Norfolk, England

1. Aerial farm shots
2. Tractor in field
3. Drone shot of dry land
4. SOUNDBITE, GLENN ANDERSON, WENDLING BECK ENVIRONMENT PROJECT (ENGLISH)  

“Climate change  is the biggest threat to food security that there is.  You can’t just keep intensifying production to try and tackle that problem. You need to look at the root cause. We can’t grow crops without any rain, we can’t grow crops in drought. We need to try and solve the issues with climate change and biodiversity loss.”

5. Drone shot, field and crops
6. Drone shot, wide, field and crops
7. Aerial swooping over fields
8. SOUNDBITE: DR JO TREWEEK, ECOLOGIST (ENGLISH)

“Typically modern intensive farming isn’t compatible with  high levels of biodiversity. So in the country as a whole as farming has intensified, biodiversity has declined and that has been an ongoing process since the 50s.”

9. Drone, tracking, fields and crops
10. Tractor at work
11. Cows in field 
12. Aerial shot 
13. Close up - wild flower meadow and butterfly
14. SOUNDBITE, GLENN ANDERSON, WENDLING BECK ENVIRONMENT PROJECT (ENGLISH)

“The principal of Biodiversity Net Gain is where developers are losing habitat from developments - whether that be house building or construction or mineral sites - they are now bound to offset that habitat loss. The process is they can try and mitigate that to some extent onsite but then they can look to buy credits, to not just replace that habitat loss, but to actively create a biodiversity net gain.”

15. Aerial landscape fields
16. Pond - wide
17. Duck in pond
18. Close up toad
19. Aerial water
20. Close up fruit on trees
21. Farmers examining saplings - wide
22. Farmers examining saplings - CU
23. SOUNDBITE, GLENN ANDERSON, WENDLING BECK ENVIRONMENT PROJECT (ENGLISH)

  “The Wendling Beck project won’t save the world. It won’t reverse biodiversity loss on its own and it won’t solve the climate crisis on its own.  But we are testing new models of financing Nature-Based Solutions and if we can make a project that is both financially and environmentally resilient then we deliver a model which landowners will want to adopt. That drives take up in these schemes and that drives a much wider scale and maybe that will change the world and maybe that will help reverse biodiversity loss and have an impact on climate.”

24.  Aerial fields and woodlands
25.  Drone shot fields
26. Pond - duck flapping wings
27. Close up of shady stream
28. Close up of fish in stream
29. SOUNDBITE, GLENN ANDERSON, WENDLING BECK ENVIRONMENT PROJECT (ENGLISH)

“As an individual farmer I am limited in the amount I can deliver back to nature, just because of the size of my farm and what I can deliver within that land holding. By working together, collaboratively, we can deliver something that is much better, much more significant and at a landscape sale. We know that nature thrives at that scale.”

30. Aerial blackcurrant farm
31. Harvesting blackcurrant
32. Farmer sorting harvested blackcurrants 
33. SOUNDBITE:  ROSIE BEGG, LANDOWNER, WENDLING BECK (ENGLISH)

“We are at a tipping point and the path we are going down will make our children and our children’s children lives harder. And a future that they will never forgive us for. But  the positive thing is that there is another path. One that will heal the planet and heal the soil. And that is what we all need to be working for.”

SOUNDBITES:

GLENN ANDERSON: FARMER, WENDLING BECK ENVIRONMENT PROJECT

Climate change  is the biggest threat to food security that there is.  You can’t just keep intensifying production to try and tackle that problem. You need to look at the root cause. We can’t grow crops without any rain, we can’t grow crops in drought. We need to try and solve the issues with climate change and biodiversity loss.
 
DR JO TREWEEK, ECOLOGIST

Typically modern intensive farming isn’t compatible with  high levels of biodiversity. So in the country as a whole as farming has intensified, biodiversity has declined and that has been an ongoing process since the 50s.

GLENN ANDERSON, WENDLING BECK

The principal of Biodiversity Net Gain is where developers are losing habitat from developments - whether that be house building or construction or mineral sites - they are now bound to offset that habitat loss. The process is they can try and mitigate that to some extent onsite but then they can look to buy credits, to not just replace that habitat loss, but to actively create a biodiversity net gain.

GLENN ANDERSON, WENDLING BECK

So the Wendling Beck project won’t save the world. It wont reverse biodiversity loss on its own and it won’t solve the climate crisis on its own.  But we are testing new models of financing Nature-Based Solutions and if we can make a project that is both financially and environmentally resilient then we deliver a model which landowners will want to adopt. That drives take up in these schemes and that drives a much wider scale and maybe that will change the world and maybe that will help reverse biodiversity loss and have an impact on climate.

GLENN ANDERSON, WENDLING BECK

As an individual farmer I am limited in the amount I can deliver back to nature, just because of the size of my farm and what I can deliver within that land holding. By working together, collaboratively, we can deliver something that is much better, much more significant and at a landscape sale. We know that nature thrives at that scale.

ROSIE BEGG, LANDOWNER, WENDLING BECK

Rosie:  We are at a tipping point and the path we are going down will make our children and our children’s children lives harder. And a future that they will never forgive us for. But  the positive thing is that there is another path. One that will heal the planet and heal the soil. And that is what we all need to be working for.