£180k 'reverse auction' will help farmers create turtle dove habitats

East Anglia is one of the last remaining strongholds for the farmland bird species, which has suffered a 98pc decline in numbers since the 1970s, putting it at risk of extinction.

Conservationists are exploring new ways of funding habitat creation through the government’s emerging Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS), due to replace the EU system of subsidies being phased out after Brexit.

As part of Defra’s "Test and Trials" programme, the RSPB has been running a project with farmers across East Anglia to target agri-environment funding through reverse auctions.

It is the opposite of a traditional auction where bidders compete to buy an item at an increasing price. Instead, bidders enter their best price for providing the required service, and bids will be assessed to see which provide the best quality habitat at the most competitive price – not just the lowest bid.

A first auction took place in February covering areas in Norfolk's Wensum Valley and at Hadleigh and Dedham Vale in Suffolk. Winning bids will provide more than 80 hectares of food plots across these two areas.

The new, expanded zone for the reverse auction for potential new turtle dove habitats in north west Norfolk is outlined in blue (the previous zone is shown in red) (Image: RSPB)

Now a second auction is due to go live between June 7–22, targeting expanded zones in north west Norfolk and around Stonham Aspal in Suffolk, aiming to distribute around £180,000 of available funding to deliver the feeding plots needed by turtle doves arriving from migration in spring 2022 and 2023.

Senior RSPB project manager Jake Zarins said: "As well as providing essential habitat across the region the project represents an important opportunity for project participants to contribute feedback to the government around what will replace the Common Agricultural Policy following the UK’s departure from the EU.

"Whilst the use of reverse auctions has resulted in mixed and passionate feedback, the project has thus far also identified significant potential in terms of bespoke scoring systems being used for two important purposes.

"The first relates to the targeting of investment where impacts are likely to be greatest rather than simply where it is cheapest or easiest to deliver. The second is that the approach being used by the project might add value to important but undervalued farmland habitat such as ponds and the very dense scrub, bramble thickets and hedgerows required by turtle doves and many other species."

• For more information see www.entrade.co.uk/rspb or contact Jake Zarins on jake.zarins@rspb.org.uk or 07739 460005. Guidance on ways to help turtle doves can be found on the Operation Turtle Dove website.

Jake Zarins, senior project manager for the RSPB (Image: Jake Zarins)

The RSPB will hold a second 'reverse auction' to create farmland habitats for threatened turtle doves (Image: Richard Bennett)