ENVIRONMENTAL FARMERS GROUP - Key Persons
"Having spent a lifetime in agriculture and the past 24 years in the farm machinery business as a John Deere dealer covering West Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset and East Devon, I have always loved this part of the country. On hearing the great work that the Environmental Farmers Group is doing, I felt I could support farmers and our beautiful landscape for the future. "Many farmers are going to find the economics of farming difficult beyond the reduction of the BPS. This is a great opportunity for farmers and landowners to own their futures by controlling and trading their Natural Capital. The EFG can, through trading some Natural Capital, help negate this shortfall in their income, whilst creating a very positive impact on the rich and varied landscape in our beautiful part of England. "My role on the board is to work with farmers and encourage them to join the EFG and participate in this exciting new world of Natural Capital trading in the safety of a cooperative run by farmers for the benefit of farmers."
Job Titles:
- Director, Cranborne Farms
"At Cranborne, we take our responsibility to protect nature seriously. We strive to balance the need to grow food and feed with the importance of improving the environment. We recognise that, as farmers, we have a unique part to play in protecting our soils; spare land for important species recovery, especially pollinators and ground-nesting birds; and reducing pollution.
"By co-operating at scale with our neighbours in the Martin Down Farmer Cluster, we've seen real benefits across a wider landscape. Now, with the country's eyes on reducing carbon emissions, we can help others meet national targets: benefitting wildlife on our farms and providing an opportunity to trade. By working as part of a larger collection of clusters, the Environmental Farmers Group can bring even greater scale and impact to delivering these "services" - we believe it is that ability (and ease) to trade at a scale, provided by the EFG, that will be attractive to those seeking to achieve biodiversity net gain. All the while, our key driver is nature-friendly food production."
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive, Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust
- Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Society of England
Having taken a degree in Agriculture at Reading University, Teresa joined land and estate agents Strutt & Parker as a farming consultant. She was a partner with the firm for 13 years. She joined what was then the Game Conservancy, and is now the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) as Chief Executive at the end of 2001. In this role, she has been able to combine her practical and business experience of farming and land management with the conservation prescriptions and policy produced by GWCT's scientists.
Teresa believes in practical, pragmatic conservation that finds space for wildlife alongside economic land uses such as farming, fishing, shooting and forestry. She works with a number of farmer groups operating at a landscape-scale to improve wildlife conservation, and helped set up the only farmer-led Nature Improvement Area in 2012. Since then she has helped GWCT create the concept of Farmer Clusters; groups of farmers working together, voluntarily, at landscape-scale to deliver nature conservation on their farms. There are now nearly 100 Farmer Clusters in England after three years of funding from Natural England.
Teresa is a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, was a board member of Natural England (the government agency for nature conservation in England) between 2014 and 2020, is an honorary member of the National Gamekeepers Association and the Grasshoppers Farmer Group, and was awarded a CBE for services to wildlife conservation in the 2015 Queen's Birthday Honours List.