CONCERNS have been raised about conserving national park landscapes ahead of Brexit.

North York Moors National Park Authority chairman Jim Bailey was talking amid uncertainty surrounding Brexit and Government policies which has seen a dramatic decline in the area covered by environmental stewardship schemes.

He described as “a real warning sign” a predicted fall from 68 per cent in 2016 to 60 per cent this year of land in the 554sq m park covered by environmental management legal agreements.

Should officers’ predictions be realised, they said the area under which land is formally being conserved under the schemes would drop to its lowest since 2001.

A meeting of the authority’s finance and resources committee heard that, while the falling area of land under initiatives such as the Government’s flagship agri-environment scheme, Countryside Stewardship, had sparked fears for the park, Defra’s future funding for the projects was a more profound concern.

Mr Bailey said: “That’s what I am most worried about because it has socio-economic benefits and because people need that extra environmental input to their businesses to make them viable.

“So if we lost our spend as a total that would be a disaster. If we changed the focus on what they did on the ground that may be no bad thing. So what we must do is try to protect the total spend for agri-environment work in the park.”

There are calls to the government to ensure farmers and landowners with environmental stewardship agreements do not lose out as post-Brexit environmental land management payments are brought in.

The drop-off in farmers' take-up of the agri-environment schemes follows indications that post-Brexit agriculture policies will support more straightforward initiatives. This has led to a reluctance by farmers to sign up to five-year stewardship schemes, potentially restricting access to post-Brexit projects.

Mr Bailey said: “I have just done a piece of work for national parks England on farm policy post-European Union and that did show there was a concern about losing existing agri-environment schemes and managed land from management in the future.

“There’s a new land management scheme that Defra’s working on at the moment and we are very keen that the details of that scheme pick up othe concerns and that we don’t lose land that’s currently managed in good agricultural and environmental condition in the park.”

When asked if he felt schemes outlined in Defra’s 25-year Environment Plan would boost the park’s conservation objectives, he said: “The devil’s in the detail, but I think there is a commitment that we do a good job for these things in the future.

“It is our ambition and job to work with the detail to make sure that works for the North York Moors, our landscape and for our community.

“My hunch is the new scheme takes away some of the hugely broad brush patches, which is most of the moorland, and it makes it more attractive for higher spend smaller area projects. It’s a worrying trend, we need to understand what’s going on for sure, but we need to be a little bit careful about calling it a disaster.”