Pressures on the farmed environment are growing. There is a rapid increase in the human population, and in individual consumption. Farmland is now expected to produce fuel and fibre, as well as more food. Will there be room for wildlife … and does it matter? This lecture explores these issues, based on the intensive integrated research and practical management associated with the Allerton Project’s farm business in Leicestershire. Meeting a range of environmental and agricultural objectives simultaneously should be possible if it is based on sound integrated science, and is practically grounded.

Dr Chris Stoate is Head of Research at the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust’s ‘Allerton Project’ farm in Leicestershire.
Chris has worked with farmers and agricultural ecosystems in continental Europe and West Africa, as well as in the UK. Throughout, his work has been on integrating environmental management into productive farming systems to the benefit of farmers and the wider public. He currently co-ordinates a series of integrated research projects at and around the Allerton Project farm in Leicestershire. This work has included the development of now widely adopted agri-environment scheme habitat options through which farmers receive government funding for habitat creation and management. More recently, research has concentrated on combining the management of water as a resource and as a wildlife habitat in the predominantly agricultural Eye Brook catchment.

Dr Chris Stoate is Head of Research at the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust’s ‘Allerton Project’ farm in Leicestershire.
Chris has worked with farmers and agricultural ecosystems in continental Europe and West Africa, as well as in the UK. Throughout, his work has been on integrating environmental management into productive farming systems to the benefit of farmers and the wider public. He currently co-ordinates a series of integrated research projects at and around the Allerton Project farm in Leicestershire. This work has included the development of now widely adopted agri-environment scheme habitat options through which farmers receive government funding for habitat creation and management. More recently, research has concentrated on combining the management of water as a resource and as a wildlife habitat in the predominantly agricultural Eye Brook catchment.