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Rural Development Contracts
Rural Development Contracts (RDCs) is an overarching management scheme which aims to establish a contract between individuals or groups and the government to deliver public goods benefiting rural areas.
RDCs are wider than agri-environment schemes, as management is designed to increase the competitiveness of the land management industries and benefit the wider rural community, as well as covering environmental issues. RDCs are open to farmers, crofters, forest and estate managers and community groups.
In theory, RDCs should provide a link from the Single Farm Payment and cross compliance, through the broad and shallow Rural Development Scheme – Land Managers' Options, to the most targeted Rural Development support received through the Rural Priorities Scheme.
Land Managers' Options
Land Managers' Options (LMOs) consist of a list of broad-brush options open to all registered agricultural holdings. The aim is to give producers opportunities to carry out relatively low-effort activities which should lead to environmental, social or economic gains for the countryside.
Agri-environment options such as buffer strips, hedgerow maintenance and wild bird seed mixes are included in the scheme together with economic options such as electronic data management or entry to quality assurance schemes. While some of the individual options are useful, there is no requirement for land managers to chose a mixture of measures or plan the best locations for their placement on the farm.
Agri-environment options have so far received a small portion of the overall funding. RSPB Scotland would like to see a requirement to produce a basic plan and take up a mixture of options in order to improve the delivery of benefits from LMOs and their linkages with Rural Priorities.
Rural Priorities
Rural Priorities (RPs) is a competitive scheme made up of higher level management options aimed to stimulate competitiveness, benefit communities and encourage active management of protected sites and the wider farmed environment.
The scheme has been regionalised by dividing Scotland into 11 regions. In each region, a Regional Project Assessment Committee (RPAC) made up of Government and agency staff decides on their priorities for that area. In practice regional budgets have not been set and the priorities do not differ widely across the RPAC areas.
Applications are initially assessed by a government or agency-employed case officer, who acts as the first point of call for the applicant and should give them an idea of how likely they are to be successful.
When an application is finally committed, the case officer will formally score it against a set of assessment criteria and give it a mark before submitting it to the RPAC. The RPAC assesses the proposals against the priorities they have decided upon and has the final say over whether it should be funded.
What we're doing
RSPB Scotland:
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inputs into the development and assessment of agri-environment and makes the case to provide sufficient support for good environmental management. We are represented on the Programme Monitoring Committee and other Government groups to examine the effects of the programme
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has submitted views to the First Stage Review and Mid Term Evaluation
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produces briefings for parliament and Scottish Government on various issues related to biodiversity and the farmed environment
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provides guidance and supporting evidence to advisors and applicants where biodiversity priorities are likely to be delivered by the application
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carries out research into agri-environment options and monitors their delivery for priority species.
Last modified: 16 March 2011