Grants are available to support projects within the Isle of Wight National Landscape.

Cash from Defra will support environmental initiatives including those tackling climate change, through promoting carbon storage and preventing flooding, improvements for wildlife, providing better access to the countryside and enhancing the Island’s landscape and history.

Farmers and landowners are among those who can apply for financial help, if you have a project in mind.

Funds must be allocated and spent before March 2025 and could also help environmental organisations and parish councils 

  • To apply and for information, contact Mark Simmons, National Landscapes Farm Adviser on mark.simmons@iow.gov.uk, or call 07851 093532.

Mark Simmons, farm adviser for the Isle of Wight National Landscape said: "This is a golden opportunity to achieve those projects you always wanted to do but where financial support was not previously available.

"The grant is within the control of the National Landscapes team and a local farmer panel so, using local knowledge, the best outcomes for the Island can be secured."

Sam and Fiona Biles from Calbourne used one to restore historic hedgerows on their pasture farm.

They said: "Our old hedge-lines show on eighteenth and nineteenth century maps of Calbourne, however some had disappeared.

"Others had become gappy, and had lost the bottom layer, which is so important for nature conservation."