A study to develop the scope for monitoring landscape-scale biodiversity impacts

This Contract is a scoping study to inform survey design and stratification of a landscape-scale agri-environment scheme monitoring programme.

This scoping study will inform the design, stratification, methodologies and analyses for a landscape-scale monitoring programme to assess the impact of English AES. This includes Countryside Stewardship agreements/capital grants and ongoing Higher Level Stewardship agreements. The scoping study will need to take account of historical AES uptake in study units.

The study will help ensure a survey design which both optimises allocation of monitoring resources and generates sufficiently robust conclusions. It will address the following five aspects of monitoring:

Objectives

The objectives of this contract are to:

1.Scope analytical approaches

2.Identify indicator species to monitor

3.Develop a score for level of AES intervention on study units within National Character Areas (NCAs)

4.Select landscape study areas for species monitoring

5.Develop a species monitoring strategy

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