Catchment-Sensitive Farming: Tackling Diffuse Water Pollution from Agriculture in England —Policies and Drivers - Water and Agriculture: Sustainability, Markets and Policies - page 273

(RDR) application, which amongst other things provides funding so that environmental
issues are taken into account in farming policies.
Environmental Stewardship (ES) is a new agri-environment scheme which aims to
secure widespread environmental benefits. The scheme has three elements:
Entry Level Stewardship (ELS) is a 'whole farm' scheme open to all farmers and land
managers with conventional land. Acceptance will be guaranteed providing you can
meet the scheme requirements. ELS aims to encourage large numbers of farmers and
land managers across England to deliver simple yet effective environmental
management that goes beyond the Single Payment Scheme (SPS) requirement to
maintain land in Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition (GAEC). If ELS is
taken up across large areas of the countryside it will help to improve water quality and
reduce soil erosion.
Organic Entry Level Stewardship (OELS) is a 'whole farm' scheme similar to ELS,
open to farmers who manage all or part of their land organically.
Higher Level Stewardship (HLS), which will be combined with ELS or OELS options,
aims to deliver significant environmental benefits in high priority situations and areas.
HLS is discretionary and concentrates on the more complex types of management,
where land managers need advice and support and where agreements need to be tailored
to local circumstances.
The five primary objectives of Higher Level Stewardship are:
wildlife conservation
maintenance and enhancement of landscape quality and character
natural resource protection
protection of the historic environment
promotion of public access and understanding of the countryside.
There are two secondary objectives — flood management and conservation of genetic
resources, where spin-off benefits are sought from management, designed to achieve the
five primary objectives.
CSF Delivery Project
There remains a mixed response from farmers to the question of whether farming
contributes to diffuse pollution. Some accept that farming practices cause pollution,
others do not, or at least challenge the extent to which they do compared to other, usually
fixed point, sources of pollution. Getting farmers to accept or realise that farming causes
pollution — that is, by its day in and day out activities — remains a big problem,
particularly if they feel they are observing best practice or if the impacts are off-farm.