RSPB Hope Farm seeks to restore biodiversity, whilst maintaining productivity and profitability. As part of this, the RSPB is seeking nature-positive ways of minimising greenhouse gas emissions, adapting to and mitigating climate change. Trees and shrubs can lock up carbon and the aim here is to plan creation and management to have the highest net value for biodiversity, improve resilience, carbon sequestration and storage whilst maintaining or increasing agricultural productivity and profitability. It is important to note that many semi-natural open habitats, such as species-rich grassland, are also important for carbon sequestration and storage, and so it is essential to protect and restore these alongside any woodland creation.
Key benefits for biodiversity arise from making wooded habitats “bigger, better, more, connected” (Lawton Report), or to list these in priority order for net biodiversity gain: better, bigger, connected, more. Hence the initial focus at Hope Farm is on increasing the wildlife value of existing woodland. Woodland expansion should not be a priority where this would compromise the condition of open habitats or the status of species which thrive in open landscapes, such as Skylarks, Lapwings and Corn Buntings. However, at Hope Farm there is clearly scope to have both more trees and more Skylarks through strategic design of woodland creation. A specific species priority is management to support the Turtle Dove, which is an increasingly rare farmland bird that nests in tall, dense scrub over 4m in height.
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