Boundary Boost
Re-evaluating our hedges
This is a new project which enables research, trial and innovation aiming to understand the opportunities in the development of alternative markets; namely green finance, to support land management and contributing towards delivery of national Environmental Improvement Plans goals. Dartmoor Hill Farm Project successfully secured funding awarded from the Environment Agency administered and Defra funded Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund (NEIRF).
Dartmoor is an iconic landscape; elements of which help define its local identity and has reflected the management of fields, farms and moorland through generations. The ambition was to develop a means to incentivise, inform and reward good practice and at a level accessible to most, if not all farmers. Dartmoor represents a predominantly grass-based, livestock-rearing system – hedges and boundaries are common features which virtually all farms include as a fundamental part of their land.
Big, broad, stout and solid. Stone-faced, shrubby, tree-topped. Earthen core, carbon-rich, biodiverse networks of flora and fauna. Historically or culturally significant.
The core ambitions are all interlinked:
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To develop a matrix to more accurately assess and record condition, whilst informing future management of a Devon Hedge for use by farmers.
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Identify key locations where hedges and boundaries can maximise environmental benefits which are of value to society, (initially focussed on water and biodiversity) through efficient use of existing data.
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Establish a viable ‘top up’ scheme that rewards these benefits, contributing to a local, circular economy by operating at minimal profit.
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Collaboration with farmers to ensure it is practical and realistic; with Government to operate in parallel to SFI hence encouraging engagement; and with potential buyers seeking tangible, local routes for CSR, ESG or insetting etc.
As a local scheme, part of the appeal revolves around its direct connection with farmers, the distinct landscape character and ability to offer a potentially more relevant or tangible offer reflecting investor/buyer priorities. Using existing knowledge and data, it also aims to identify where greatest gains can be achieved, including between separate but neighbouring ownership for example to reconnect fragmented habitat or manage surface water in a catchment.
Two initial pilot sites will be established to allow field data to be collected and evaluated for current and potential values. Long term, Dartmoor has many miles of hedge which could offer substantial expansion of a successful scheme – the system would also enable it to be adapted to other regional applications in Protected Landscapes, and to expand the ‘layering’ of wider values, so that it also reflects eg. Carbon sequestration, cultural or heritage values etc.
As a trial innovation, the project will run until March 2026. Progress updates will be shared via the Dartmoor Hill Farm Project as knowledge sharing amongst farmers is key to its development and functional delivery.
For further information or interest, please contact hfp@dartmoor.gov.uk
The Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund (NEIRF) supports the government’s goals in the: Environmental Improvement Plan, Green Finance Strategy, Nature Markets Framework, Agricultural Transition Plan. It aims to stimulate private investment and market-based mechanisms that improve and safeguard our domestic natural environment by helping nature projects get ready for investment. Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund
