Farmers could be paid to kill grey squirrels under plans to rid Britain of the invasive species in post-Brexit revamp of subsidies
- The new environmental scheme will reward farmers for conserving nature
- Read more: Vegetable shortages will last another month
Farmers could be given extra financial incentives to band together to kill grey squirrels in a drive to rid Britain of the invasive species.
Currently individual farmers can receive £50 a hectare to get rid of grey squirrels on their land.
But new measures are planned on a much bigger scale – potentially across entire counties – as part of a revamp of financial subsidies for farmers after Brexit.
The new scheme, called Environmental Land Management, rewards farmers for conserving nature instead of just basing subsidies on how much land they own.
Niall Moore, of the Non-Native Species Secretariat, said: ‘We’re looking to see if we could possibly incentivise control across a large, very large scale, maybe county levels and multiple county.
Individual farmers currently receive £50 a hectare to get rid of grey squirrels on their land
New measures are set to be made on a much bigger scale potentially across entire counties
‘For that, it will be tricky, but you know, I think it’s I think it’s doable.
‘It’s one of the benefits of having left the EU is where we now don’t have to put all our money into the common agricultural policies.’
The scheme could expand to target other invasive species in its sights as well: including non-native deer species and mink.
Explaining why farmers could be asked to target mink, Dr Moore added: ‘Mink is another one that we’re really worried about. I mean, mink been around for a long time, but they do have a huge impact on water voles and some of our nesting seabirds.
‘So we’re we’re looking to see if we could possibly incentivize control across a large, very large scale, maybe across county levels and multiple counties.’
Non-native species are one of the top five drivers of biodiversity loss globally with new figures showing an estimated to cost the British economy £1.84 billion per year.
There are currently around 2,000 non-native species in Britain with 10 to 12 new species establishing themselves every year.
Lord Benyon, Minister for Biosecurity, said: ‘Through coordinated actions across Great Britain to prevent the arrival of new non-native species and tackle the impacts of those established – we can minimise the potentially devasting environmental and economic impacts these species cause.’
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