Great news - our application for funding to the Prince's Countryside Fund to extend our hill farming training scheme to Wales and Scotland has been successful.
A regular observation made by hill farmers and commoners is that many of the staff in organisations like Natural England, the National Park Authorities and Wildlife Trusts have a limited understanding of how hill farming really works. This has led to misunderstandings and poorer working relationships between hill farmers and conservation professionals. The famers asked us if we would help out, and we did.
Together with a group of hill farmers in Cumbria and Dartmoor we planned an exciting training project with a difference. The farmers would be the main trainers and the training would take place on their hill farms. We obtained grant funding from the Prince's Countryside Fund, with some extra funding from the Fells and Dales RDPE in Cumbria and from the Duchy of Cornwall for Dartmoor, and delivered the training for free.
The project has been very successful. The training was oversubscribed and the external evaluator very positive. Those attending the training said they increased their knowledge of hill farming systems and understanding of farmer perspectives. The farmer trainers said the training opened up a two-way learning process and they learnt from those in attendance. The icing on the cake is that we now have a great training package that we can tailor and sell (at a very reasonable price) to Defra, Natural England and other conservation bodies. The demand is there and we have continued delivering the training.
Earlier on this year, we were asked if we could do something similar in Wales and Scotland. Due to the different legislative and institutional arrangements in these countries we knew that we would require further funding to get the training package and course material right, so they fit the Scottish and Welsh context. We applied to the Prince's Countryside Fund for more funding and we are delighted to say that we have been successful.
We will keep you updated on our progress.
