Rural Payments and Services

The aim of this item is to benefit fens and lowland raised bogs by increasing water levels on land immediately adjacent.

Grass buffer areas can help reduce nutrients flowing into the bog or fen.

They can also provide stock grazing the bog or fen with access to an area of drier land.

Land that is in an arable crop that is adjacent to a lowland raised bog or fen is eligible.

You should not include areas of land covering rocks, scree, water, dense bracken etc. We will check this using the same approach we use to check land for the Basic Payment Scheme.

Assessing your land eligibility

You must combine this item with the Management of Buffer Areas for Fens and Bogs option.

You must identify on a map the area of the proposed new buffer area.

• you must sow the area with a low productivity grass mix to establish a new sward
• the buffer area must be at least 10 metres wide
• you must establish the sward by 1 June in the first year of your contract
• you must maintain a diary

You can claim £1,016.82 per hectare.

The inspectors will check:

• the location and extent of the work
• you have sown the area with a low productivity grass mix to establish a new sward. There may be an invoice check to ensure the correct grass sward mixture has been sown
• the buffer area is at least 10 metres wide
• you have establish the sward by 1 June in the first year of your contract
• you have maintained a diary

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