Philip Dunne MP for the Ludlow constituency over half of which is in the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs), today encouraged farmers in the AONB to apply for the Farming in Protected Landscapes grant scheme.

The Farming in Protected Landscape (FiPL) programme provides funding for farmers and other land managers to work in partnership with National Parks and AONB organisations to deliver projects for climate, nature, people and place.

In recognition of the positive feedback and outcomes delivered by the FiPL programme, the Government announced in the Environment Improvement Plan in January that the programme would be extended until March 2025 with an uplift of funding.

The programme has recently marked its second anniversary. Since the FiPL programme launched in July 2021, the National Parks and AONBs have supported more than 2,800 projects. These have delivered a range of benefits, such as reducing flood risk to protect local communities better, increasing biodiversity, boosting the visitor economy by providing more opportunities for people to explore and understand the landscapes, and enhancing the character of these landscapes. For example, in the last two years the programme has helped plant more than 100 miles of hedgerow, created or restored more than 260 ponds, engaged around 5,000 volunteers, and involved around 200 projects delivering educational access visits to farms.

Mr Dunne, who is a farmer but not in the AONB, said:

"I encourage farmers in South Shropshire’s AONB to apply for funding for one-off projects to the Farming in Protected Landscape (FiPL) programme, which supports farmers in these Protected Landscapes to enable them to continue to play an important role in delivering our ambitions for nature."