Are landholders willing to collaborate under ELMs? Promoting collaborative conservation on a landscape scale in the UK

It is now widely acknowledged that one of the ways to protect biodiversity in the UK is through a landscape scale management approach towards conservation. Achieving this will require future agri-environmental schemes to foster better opportunities for landscape scale collaboration amongst landholders – a limitation of previous agri-environmental schemes. With the UK's new Environmental Land Management schemes reflecting a stronger emphasis on collaborative management at a landscape scale, the extent to which landowners are willing to collaborate must be better understood. This will enable the potential for a collaborative Nature Recovery Network - set out in the UK's 25 Year Environmental Plan – to be fully realised. Findings from our case study in Bonhurst Farm, UK suggest that while the scenario with the highest connectivity was the preferred choice amongst participants, several barriers stand in the way of implementing it; not least the uncertainty of how it might impact the operation of their farm business. Additionally, concerns around funding, and the lack of clarity and flexibility, of future scheme could potentially hinder uptake. This is in spite of respondents’ strong inclination towards environmental conservation and increasing landscape connectivity. To address these barriers, future policies must not only involve landholders earlier in the development process of these schemes but also consider how their involvement contributes to the formulation of these schemes. Moreover, our findings also indicate that facilitators and advisors serves as key driver to the success of collaborations, with their ability to organise and implement collaborative schemes, along with their expertise knowledge, being seen as invaluable.