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Pumlumon - Pumlumon Large Areas Conservation Project

The landscapes surrounding Pumlumon are breathtaking, not only for their raw natural beauty, but for their wide horizons and sense of space. However, like most of the uplands across Wales, intensive land use activities have resulted in a significant loss of biodiversity, with many of the habitats being either lost or degraded to poor condition. Over-grazing of sheep has induced soil compaction, which has resulted in increased flooding of the lowland areas. The Pumlumon area is the largest watershed is Wales and is the source of the rivers Wye, Severn and Rheidol.

With the future of farming uncertain in the UK, coupled with new pressured on farmers to deliver environmental services, this partnership of local landholders and communities, government and non-government agencies seeks to find new and sustainable solutions to current pressures. In addition, the project will also address wider social and economic regeneration issues. The project is being led by Wildlife Trusts Wales.

Our vision is to:

• Create a robust, resilient and connected species rich landscape where the primary land use will be nature conservation
• Create landscape solutions that will address climate change, diffuse pollution, flooding, habitat loss and species decline by establishing ecosystems management services
• Enable the farming community to have a sustainable future through the sympathetic management of natural assets
• Encourage economic activity through the promotion of enhanced natural assets
• Empower communities to address environmental issues through sustainable environmental management

The principal land cover within the project area is dominated by a complex mosaic of locally, nationally and internationally important habitats and species, such as dry and wet dwarf-shrub heath, blanket bog, unimproved acid grassland and a number of oligotrophic lakes. Agriculturally improved grassland, broadleaved woodlands and forestry plantation are also characteristic features of the area. The Pumlumon area is also important for breeding, wintering and feeding bird fauna particularly Hen Harrier, Merlin, Short eared owl and Red and Black grouse, and a number of Red Data Book and UK BAP invertebrates.

Project delivery is through a Whole Area Landscape Strategy that offers a number of entry or support options.

For example, the Farm delivery mechanisms are:

• A local agri-environment scheme that will pay for agreed capital and revenue works additional to current agricultural support systems, with entry options agreed within the project framework.
• Payment for delivering ecosystem services
• The production of a tailored Farm Plan comprising three equally weighted elements:
• Farm Landscape Plan - identifies biodiversity and eco-system features management
• Farm Resource plan - identifies capacity and resources
• Business Development Plan - encourages, for example 'branding' and re-skilling

Social and economic outcomes - In general terms the main opportunities for economic and social development will be:

• More sustainable (less resource intensive) agriculture producing higher quality, high value-added products for local markets
• Better ecosystem management, requiring greater inputs of (more skilled) labour, more research and planning, better delivery mechanisms, therefore creating a range of jobs that don’t exist at present
• More opportunities to create new (higher value-added) tourism and leisure products based on ecotourism or "green tourism"
• The provision of environmental management services to farmers and landowners
• Empowering and resourcing local communities to develop sustainable land-management, environmental, or tourism projects of their own design

For further information about the project, please contact: The Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust. Tel: 01938 555654 E-mail: estelle@montwt.co.uk