Sustainability of Hill Farming, 2007-2008

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.This is a mixed method data collection. The study is part of the Rural Economy and Land Use (RELU) programme. The project used the Peak District National Park as a case study to examine the impact of hill farming practices on upland biodiversity (using birds as an indicator group); how hill farms were responding to ongoing and future changes to policies and prices; what this would in turn imply for upland biodiversity; what the public wanted from upland ecosystems and how policies could be designed better to deliver public goods from hill farms. To answer these questions, the project team conducted ecological and economic surveys on hill farms; used survey results to parameterise ecological and economic models of this farming system; developed new ways to integrate these into coupled ecological and economic models and paid particular attention to interactions across farm boundaries; used the models to evaluate the performance of existing policies and to test designs that could lead to more effective policies; and conducted a range of choice experiments with different cross-sections of the general public to evaluate their preferences for upland landscapes. Ecological data from this study are available at the Environmental Information Data Centre of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. Further information for this study may be found through the ESRC Research Catalogue webpage: A Landscape-Scale Analysis of the Sustainability of the Hill Farming Economy and Impact of Farm Production Decisions. Main Topics:Ecological economics, hill farming, farming systems, uplands, Peak District, birds, agriculture and sustainability.