Who Should be Involved in the Agreement?

Environmental Stewardship schemes reward active managers of common land. Most commons associations now take the view that the majority, if not all, of the income from ES, whether ELS, UELS or HLS, should only be paid to those actively managing the common land. These include active graziers and possibly the owners where they are undertaking specific activities, e.g. woodland planting, grip blocking and burning management.

Only paying active graziers can cause disquiet where commoners have been used to receiving a payment for not grazing (as agreed under previous agreements) and feel aggrieved with the change in policy. One approach is to say that all commoners are welcome to join the scheme once they have established a hefted flock. This will take two-four years depending on the common and existing stock for the commoner. In some circumstances, new graziers are able to start by acquiring stock from existing flocks, by agreement to avoid bad feeling and disruption of hefting boundaries.

The logic behind not paying non-graziers is that most schemes have minimum stocking levels and that if all graziers stopped grazing then the prescriptions would not be adhered to. In an economic climate where sheep farming often loses money without the environmental payments, this is a distinct possibility. A clause to maintain a minimum level of grazing also ensures that skills of commoning are maintained.

Another option is to make a nominal payment to non-graziers who then commit not to graze for the period of the scheme and the agreement is therefore secure. A variation to this option is to restrict payments to non-graziers who have the capacity to graze, although those that do not have any capacity could lease their rights to third parties. However, be aware that rights attached to land can only be leased for two years. Involving some or all of the non-graziers engages the community and helps to keep the door open to new graziers. The report on Trends in pastoral commoning indicated a drift away from grazing common land.

Some active graziers might not agree with the principle or detail of the scheme and refuse to sign an agreement. In that case the other graziers may be able still to enter an agreement but need to take account of all the active grazier’s stock/grazing rights in the grazing calendar.

In summary, each agreement is unique and who is included will depend on the specific circumstances on the ground.