Climate Change is here and we are seeing the devastating impacts across Wales. The Met Office, in their latest State of the UK Climate report, confirmed that the UK has become slightly wetter and significantly hotter over the last few decades. Flooding has contributed to the UK having its second-worst harvest in 2024 since 1983 after record-breaking wet weather last winter. Sea levels are also rising, summers are becoming hotter and drier on average and wildfire risks are increasing. All this is hurting nature, impacting communities as well increasing risks to our food security. 

Alarm bells should be ringing, the very real challenges that more erratic weather should be high on agendas.  The potential of nature and nature-based farming systems, alongside wider nature-based approaches, can deliver lasting solutions but needs significantly more consideration and support. It's clear we need more innovative approaches to flood management such as nature-based approaches and sustainable drainage. This needs to be prioritised.  

Building nature-based climate action
Improving climate resilience and restoring nature are mutually reinforcing in farmed systems and need to be supported. Healthy ecosystems, abundant flora and fauna, and stronger soils all help make our landscapes more resilient to the effects of extreme weather.  

Four nature-based solutions should be fast-tracked  

• Increasing vegetation cover, for instance with riparian buffers, cover crops and agroforestry, to absorb and retain water through the root systems. 

• Protecting soil as degraded soil is less able to retain water. Using regenerative and organic agricultural practices, like cover crops, more complex rotations, and reducing chemical inputs to improve soil and reduce disturbance allows soils to absorb more water during heavy rain and retain it in times of drought. 

• Restoring rivers to a near-natural state by reintroducing the native beaver, and restoring wetlands - areas of land that are either permanently or seasonally covered with water. Wetland ecosystems naturally filter and retain water. 

• Restoring peatlands – critical nature and carbon-rich habitats which can retain huge amounts of water if they are in a good state. Rewetting peat is crucial, through restoring habitat or adopting sustainable practices such as paludiculture and removing harmful activities such as inappropriately planted trees and drainage for agriculture. 

The political imperative  
All these measures will require political will and budgets to ensure land managers can make the changes for the long term. The Wildlife Trusts continuously raise the issue of climate resilience and the ongoing flooding with Members of the Senedd. At the Welsh Labour Party Conference, we co-hosted a session with other eNGO’s about farming for public benefit including nature's restoration. It was held with Huw-Irranca Davies the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs in attendance. There was strong support for Nature Based Solutions, the need for a land use framework, and engaging public bodies as well as the people of Wales to instigate the changes needed.

Public and market support for nature-based solutions on the farm
The role of farmers and growers in reducing climate emissions, capturing carbon and adapting land to be climate-prepared depends on whether the public and private support is there for the changes they need to make.  Public finance to support the nature-based approaches above should be a priority – ensuring nature restoration, farm resilience and food supplies as well as helping to tackle issues for wider communities such as flooding and drought.  

The Wildlife Trust's recent blog on the 2024 UK Budget and UK environmental land management (ELM) schemes outlines where changes are needed. Poorly designed support schemes, for farmers at early stages or those already doing much to deliver environmental benefits, must be sorted as the current issues will affect their ability to manage climate instability.  

Training and advice and robust enforcement of regulations are also all needed to provide the right conditions for farmers and growers to act on climate and nature-based solutions.  

Critically, we also need firm action to ensure the market plays fair so that farmers can take the right actions without being penalised at the farm gate. Price squeezes and demands of the food industry, such as on standards, make it hard for farmers to consider new measures - such as lowering stock levels or using herbal lays to help soil recovery, leaving some land aside for nature or flooding, producing food to more appropriate cosmetic standards to reduce chemical use and waste - all these should be supported by the food buyers. A just transition for farmers is vital if we are going to get timely and well-designed actions in the right places.  

 
Watch out for more work by The Wildlife Trusts on these critical issues facing farmers and society.