Forum Meeting

Summary of the latest meeting of the Eutrophication Forum The latest meeting took place on the Thursday, 28th February 2008 in Nobel House, London. There were two related presentations. The first was: -

Catchment Sensitive Farming - in England, the West Midlands and the Meres and Mosses

This was presented by Steven Bailey, Lead Catchment Sensitive Farming Officer, West Midlands, Natural England. The presentation described how the England Catchment Sensitive Farming Delivery Initiative had been applied to selected catchments under the headings of awareness raising, free advice and incentives to reduce diffuse water pollution from agriculture.

There was a discussion of farmer’s attitudes, their understanding of the ecological impact of raised nitrogen levels and the relative effectiveness of advice, regulation and grants. One relevant aspect in the Meres is that they have been eutrophic for some time and people have not seen a recent deterioration. Steven Bailey and the next speaker, Peter Samuel, both agreed that there is a need for simplified integrated tools to show effects of changes in practice.

The second presentation was: -

Catchment Sensitive Farming - in Wales, the effectiveness of agricultural measures employed in Wales

This was presented by Peter Samuel, Welsh Assembly Government. The presentation covered the following topics: -
CSF Demonstration Project

• Outline of project
• Observations on its effectiveness

• Farmer attitudes (baseline)

• Distribution of P problems across Wales
• Modelled effectiveness of Axis 2, CSF and WPZ,s

The discussion addressed the farmers and public attitudes as revealed by survey results shown in the presentation.

The date of the next meeting Wednesday 10th September 2008. The venue will be Nobel House.