Nuffield Scholarship
Conservation in farm country:
what makes a good farm environmental scheme?
Dive into my findings as a 2024-2026 Nuffield Canada scholar investigating how farmers and ranchers can improve the environment, and their social licence, without compromising farm business viability.
SUMMARY:
Declining biodiversity and the loss of natural landscapes are an unfortunate reality across the globe. This is driven by many factors, from rising populations and increasing pace of urban and industrial development to harmful farming practices, the economic realities of producing food, and beyond. There are, however, opportunities for farmers and ranchers to make a much larger difference in landscape conservation and restoration, particularly in forests, fencerows, wetlands, and culturally significant areas.
While many success stories exist, an array of barriers can limit the ability of farmers and ranchers to implement conservation and restoration efforts at a larger scale or with greater consistency. In some cases, there is funding available to foster significant landscape-level change – but that change is rarely realized in full, if at all. At the local level, clear environmental issues can go unaddressed due to a lack of awareness or ownership of the problem, cultural barriers, low financial resources, and other factors.
This report explores government programs and policies, local initiatives, and individual efforts aimed at restoring natural landscapes and important cultural spaces. Cultural spaces are included since communities value many natural ecosystems for reasons beyond pure ecological significance. Some case studies offer successful examples which could be applied in other political jurisdictions. Others provide cautionary tales, identifying less-than-effective approaches to environmental restoration, as well as the dynamic between environmental restoration and the economic and cultural conditions of farming communities.