Farming

Upland hill farming is one of the key activities which have shaped the Lake District’s cultural landscape. It has contributed so much to the Lake District we see today and will continue to do so in the future. However, farming in the Lake District presents its own unique combination of challenges. These challenges present risks to the future management and appearance of the Lake District, including its cultural traditions. Issues such as an ageing farming population, future land ownership and tenancy changes, the changing nature of subsidy and Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform will all have a bearing on how farming manages the cultural landscape.

Whilst we continue to recognise the importance of, and support, traditional upland farm and management practices in order to manage and protect the attributes of Outstanding Universal Value, it is also important that farming continues to evolve. Farmers and land managers must be supported to maintain the health and welfare of livestock, protect and enhance natural resources (for example: wildlife, carbon storage and water quality), and make greater efficiencies by using new technology and sources of energy to reduce costs.

We want to ensure land continues to be managed and farmed in a sustainable way in the Lake District, recognising that farms need to be financially viable and sustainable, and that the structure of farming and land management is changing due to a range of global economic pressures and subsidy reform, which makes income from farming unpredictable. Helping farm businesses to be profitable in a way that conserves the overall Outstanding Universal Value and Special Qualities of the Lake District is fundamental for them to be sustainable and continue to effectively manage the land. It is their land management practices ultimately that create the cultural landscape, which is of Outstanding Universal Value in its own right, but this also underpins the visitor economy, which is so heavily relied upon.