Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) offers financial rewards to farmers who manage their land in a wildlife friendly way. They usually already have good quality habitats present or are willing to create habitats to benefit wildlife. Natural England administer HLS and have determined particular areas within England where they are targeting the scheme. These areas have been chosen because they already contain significant wildlife interest or have the potential to contribute to landscape-scale changes to the environment. If you’re not in one of these target areas, then you may still be eligible to apply so long as you meet certain theme-based criteria.

Many farms are diversifying into niche markets to sell their produce and incorporating wildlife into your everyday management can actually boost your products & your profits.

Through HLS you’ll be able to maintain, restore and create a variety of habitats and protect historic and landscape features. You’ll also be able to obtain grants to carry out maintenance & repair of your farm e.g. rebuilding dry stonewalls, restoring traditional agricultural buildings, fencing for conservation management & other capital works items you may need to contribute to managing your land in an environmentally sensitive way. You could also contribute to educating our young people about the countryside by options that support visits to your farm by schools and other interested groups.

The application process for HLS is more detailed than for Entry Level Stewardship (ELS), and requires a level of knowledge about plants and their identification and hence there is a need to seek advice if you are interested in applying for HLS. Natural England must approve the application before going ahead (a pre-FEP visit is needed) but once that has been undertaken then a Farm Environment Plan (FEP) is carried out to map all the features on the farm. This allows specific options to be chosen for the most suitable fields and boundaries. ELS options must also be chosen and both ELS and HLS can be applied for at the same time.