A Land Carbon Management Plan for the Wallington Estate

Abstract

The National Trust aims to enter the majority of tenanted farms on the Wallington Estate into Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreements. The agreements aim to enhance biodiversity, the historic environment, access and landscape features however the impact on soil organic carbon (SOC) and biomass carbon (C) is also of importance. Multiple options may be available to achieve each particular aim with differing impacts on SOC and biomass C. The project will identify land management options that achieve each primary objective (enhance biodiversity, the historic environment, access and landscape features) but also maximise C without increasing emissions of other greenhouse gases (GHGs). An inventory of the potential C that may be sequestered by introduction of HLS on The Wallington Estate will be undertaken and the impact on other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions indicated. Current SOC content measured by the University of Durham will be used as the baseline against which any predicted change in C by implementing existing or new HLS options may be compared. Using the data generated by Bell and Worrall (2009) and Defra project BD2302 (Warner et al., 2008a) this project will evaluate those HLS options most suited to each individual tenancy within the Wallington Estate and calculate their potential to enhance soil or biomass C. Those with the greatest potential will be subject to further analysis to calculate their impact after a period of 20 years. Their practicability will be further assessed taking into account other objectives (farm productivity, soil and water protection and biodiversity). A programme of monitoring will be devised to ascertain the effectiveness of selected options relative to the predicted calculations. As part of this projects function as a ‘blueprint’ for other land holdings step-by-step guidance will be produced to allow the method to be implemented on other National Trust estates.