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Peak District Land Management Initiative

Peak District © Countryside Agency
The Peak District Land Management Initiative (PDLMI) was unique among the LMIs in that it focused on the development of a potential new funding package for upland areas. It worked with local farmers and landowners to develop ideas for an 'Alternative Payment Mechanism' and it explored the feasibility of putting such a scheme into practice. The PDLMI produced a number of ideas for improving the content and delivery of rural policy.


The area and the issues

The Peak District Land Management Initiative (PDLMI) focused on eight parishes in the Peak District National Park. The project area covered 30 square kilometres, containing 91 farms including beef, sheep and dairy enterprises, mostly family farms. 

The main issues facing the area and its agriculture included:

  • Financial pressure on farms leading to reduction in labour;
  • Loss of biodiversity and decline of landscape features as a result of overstocking or loss of farm labour and traditional skills;
  • Low levels of participation in rural development and environmental schemes and a strong reliance on production subsidies;
  • Increasingly complicated application processes for public funding; and
  • Issues of farm succession with few young people wishing to take on the family farm.                     

Key Conclusions

The Peak District LMI carried out extensive research and consultation with local farmers and organisations and developed detailed proposals for an 'Alternative Payment Mechanism' for rural businesses.

Conclusions arising from this work include suggestions of how integration and delivery of rural funding streams could be improved and how agri-environment schemes could be improved to both engage and reward farmers more effectively.

The Peak District LMI concluded in 2003. 

Related publications:

The Peak District Land Management Initiative

For further information contact:

Ken Parker
Peak District National Park Authority
Baslow Road
Bakewell
Derbyshire
DE45 1AE

Telephone: 01629 816331
Email: kjp@peakdistrict-npa.gov.uk