1. Urgently provide a well-funded scheme that helps reduce and reverse the impacts of the nature and climate emergencies, both here and abroad.
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Protect farm soils for food production.
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Reduce pollution, severe weather impacts, and the linked costs.
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Improve and increase space for wildlife.
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Support local economies, communities, culture and distinctive landscapes.
2. Ensure all farms meet the same basic legal environmental protection standards.
3. Protect and improve the trees, hedges and woodland that already exist.
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Support farmers to identify, protect and manage ancient trees, hedgerows and woodland, safeguarding our irreplaceable nature rich heritage for future generations.
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Support tenant farmers to expand hedges as an alternative to meeting 10% tree cover.
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Invest in fencing and the fencing supply chain.
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Look after tree lines where hedgerows have grown up into mature trees.
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Fund professional advice to manage farm woodland, especially to restore ancient woodland.
4. Help farms work towards 10% tree and hedge cover.
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Map farm woodland, hedges and edges, including tree lines, trees along watercourses and trees in open areas.
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Map areas of semi-natural habitats where trees should not be planted.
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Extend hedges and edges, woodland, and agroforestry to reduce costs, boost productivity and improve the environment.
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Provide training and enable experience to be shared to highlight the many ways farmers are using hedges, trees and woodland to benefit their farm, whilst significantly helping nature.
5. Help farmers to create super hedges.
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Enable tall, dense and wide super hedges, better protecting the farm and livestock from wind, sun and flooding. They create a greater carbon store, whilst providing flowers and fruit for pollinators and more safe space for wildlife.
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Start with farm boundary hedgerows, including those along public rights of way. These are more likely to be ancient heritage boundaries of high value to wildlife, to livestock health and the security of the farm.
6. Meet the call from the Senedd to support more agroforestry.
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Improve and protect soils to reduce the impact of extreme weather by establishing scattered trees, shelter belts and tree strips, to provide new crops and livestock with vital shade and shelter.
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Invest in hedges and edges by planting trees, especially where they will reduce flooding and pollution and increase shade, for example around livestock and poultry units, across slopes, alongside watercourses and wherever water collects, especially in times of heavy rain.
7. Develop an independent farm wildlife benchmark.
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Ensure all farms achieve at least a moderate wildlife rating.
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Support independent monitoring and easily accessible help.
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Provide tools and information to farmers to increase farmland wildlife ratings.
8. Fund cross-farm working for landscape-wide improvement.
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Increase tree cover along rivers to improve water quality, reduce soil loss and restore wildlife by connecting river woods with more trees.
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Increase countryside woodland cover and their connecting trees and hedgerows across the landscape to reverse nature loss.
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Support managing woodland cooperatively. Increase local processing of timber, increasing local employment and retail of tree products to support the local community, their economy and culture.
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Support multi-owner initiatives such as the Celtic Rainforest Wales project and create rewards for them to be part of National Forest for Wales.
9. Increase tree pasture on open hills.
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Reduce grazing among scattered upland trees, allowing new trees to grow naturally. Low grazing intensity will also reduce fire risk, helping to protect and restore upland peat soils and retain more water.
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Encourage natural regeneration and planting of some woodland and restore important wildlife scrub cover, where there are no species dependent on treeless landscapes.
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Support fencing off upland streams and gullies to support the natural regrowth of trees, and techniques of no-fence native tree planting. This increases livestock welfare and reduces soil loss. It also holds rainfall higher for longer, reducing drought and flood whilst cooling headwaters in extreme heat and helping to restore wildlife.
10. Provide options to deliver more nature positive climate actions with trees.
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Support on farm community tree nurseries to collect seed, providing locally grown trees to avoid importing tree diseases.
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Identify and map the most important nature rich old trees on farms to ensure they are recognised and protected as cultural living heritage to pass on to future generations.
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Support the removal of damaging and aggressively invasive species.