Ffermio Bro is a Welsh Government programme, which launched on 1 April 2025 and will run until March 2028.
It supports farming projects across Wales’ National Parks and National Landscapes (Formerly Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty/AONBs) that make improvements for nature and the environment.
Ffermio Bro is led locally by the Designated Landscapes. Farmers and landowners should apply directly to Designated Landscape bodies, who have set the local priorities for the scheme, and will award funding for activities that reflect local needs.
Each Landscape has specialist, dedicated Ffermio Bro advisors who will work with farmers and landowners to develop applications and support applicants through the process.
Ffermio Bro is a collaborative programme. It will fund activities that span multiple farms and have an impact on a landscape scale. This doesn’t just mean formal farm clusters – Ffermio Bro will fund projects that achieve a common goal through action taken on multiple farms – the farmers need not have any agreement or directly work together. Individual farm projects are also considered.
Ffermio Bro forms part of the preparatory stage of the Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) and will inform development of the collaborative layer.
Click here for details on how Ffermio Bro will operate
Eligibility for the Sustainable Farming Scheme
Participation in Ffermio Bro will not affect your eligibility for the Sustainable Farming Scheme. Any habitat that is created or enhanced under Ffermio Bro will be eligible under the Sustainable Farming Scheme and will count towards the Universal requirements for habitat. Farmers who have carried out appropriate works to support habitat as part of a Ffermio Bro project can benefit through Sustainable Farming Scheme. There is no disadvantage to you. Payment rates offered through Ffermio Bro are aligned with the standard payment rates for other schemes offered by Welsh Government that fund the same activities. The key distinctions are the collaborative nature of Ffermio Bro and that the scheme is focussed on Designated Landscapes such as Bannau Brycheiniog National Park.
Introduction to the Ffermio Bro Scheme in Bannau Brycheiniog National Park
The Bannau Brycheiniog National Park’s landscapes are special and unique, reflecting their geology, landforms, history of human settlement, farmland and the biodiversity and wildlife that also shape and depends on them. They need to continue to be managed, enhanced and protected, primarily through farming, whilst also supporting the farmers and communities who work here. Our Ffermio Bro: Bannau Brycheiniog National Park agri-environment scheme (the scheme) offers additional funding to allow farmers to work in partnership with each other, other organisations and us to deliver better outcomes for nature and communities. Together, we know best the opportunities and challenges facing our landscapes and communities, explained in the Park’s Management Plan “Dyfodol y Bannau.”
Your farm must be wholly or partly within Bannau Brycheiniog National Park (link to map).
This is a capital grant scheme, requiring all works to be completed within the financial year (April 1st to February 28th), leaving us sufficient time to complete administration before the end of the financial year on March 31st.
The scheme is limited to three years (April 2025 to March 2028), helping to inform the collaborative layer of the Sustainable Farming Scheme. It will work alongside, not in competition with, existing schemes and add value where it is most needed. If activities can be delivered already through other existing schemes they should be (Rural grants and payments | Sub-topic | GOV.WALES) and you will be advised to apply to those instead. The scheme will integrate incentives for positive farming practices with the Park’s purposes, which are to:
Conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of the Park
Promote opportunities for the understanding and enjoyment of the Park’s special qualities.
The scheme focuses in particular on the Sustainable Land Management Objectives set out in the Agriculture (Wales) Act 2023, in particular Objective 3:
- Sustainable production of food and other goods
- Mitigating and adapting to climate change
- Maintain and enhance resilient ecosystems and the benefits these provide
- Conserve and enhance countryside and cultural resources and promote public access to and engagement with them and sustain Welsh language and promote and facilitate its use.
The scheme centres on Objective 3, so proposals that aim to restore, improve and / or expand semi-natural habitats and / or restore wild species and maintain them for the long term will be favoured. The projects we hope to approve will also help mitigate and adapt to climate change (Objective 2) because healthy biodiversity and ecosystems do this too. Together, these help to underpin sustainable, resilient production of food and other goods (Objective 1).
Conserving biodiversity and recovering nature to maintain and enhance the resilience of the Park’s ecosystems and the benefits this provides is central to all work delivered and supported by the National Park Authority. This aligns with the Park’s first purpose to conserve and enhance natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage and our duty to do this in ways that support economic and social well-being, working in partnership with relevant organisations to achieve this. With the Park’s second purpose, to promote opportunities to understand and enjoy the Park’s special qualities, including Welsh language and culture, this helps achieve Objective 4.
We will deliver and administer this grant directly, i.e., you will apply to Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority directly, not Rural Payments Wales. We will monitor the scheme’s delivery and the progress of the projects we approve. After completion of works to an acceptable standard determined by us, you will be paid by us, not by Rural Payments Wales.
We look forward to working with you.
Your opportunity to help nature on your farms, in partnership with others
Whilst not mandatory for this scheme, we encourage you to work in partnership with other farmers and organisations. This is an opportunity to build on existing relationships and build new ones. Provided there is a lead farmer or organisation, applications will be encouraged from collaborations with and without formal agreements including looser arrangements where neighbouring farmers and other organisations (e.g., wildlife organisations, government agencies, National Park Authority, unitary authorities, private utilities, others) demonstrate an intent to work towards shared objectives without a formal agreement.
Please note: where you are proposing a partnership / cluster project, you must choose a lead applicant to submit the overall application on your behalf and each participating farmer must also submit a separate application form, detailing each farm’s or organisation’s contribution to the project. All participants must hold and provide a valid CRN. This is so that we can track the fair distribution of funds.
We aim to discuss your proposals with you, triggered by you submitting an Expression of Interest form. If you choose to continue by submitting a full application form, your application will be assessed against criteria and approved at officer level and / or by the Local Assessment Panel. Grants will be for the delivery of on-farm capital projects, ideally across multiple farms, with technical advice and support by us. We can provide a range of advice about commissioning baseline surveys, habitat and landscape mapping, ecological condition targets and area-based priorities for habitats and species. Whilst we will discuss options with you, this will not guarantee that a proposal is approved for funding.
Where your proposals are long term, your participation in the scheme will contribute to the Welsh Government’s commitment to bring 30% of land (and territorial waters) into effective management for nature by 2030 (so-called ‘30×30’).
What we will fund
We will accept one grant per farm CRN per year unless one or more farms are involved in more than one partnership delivering under Ffermio Bro.
Our total budget for 2025-26 is £274,000. We will award capital grants between the value of £1001.00 and £20,000.00. Any grant applications of £10.000.00 or more will be assessed by the Local Assessment Panel.
You will submit an Expression of Interest form to us to trigger discussions between you / your partnership and us and following that, if you wish to continue, you will then submit a full Application Form to us.
Whilst in Year 1 (2025-2026) the scheme will offer a small range of options as we get started, we aim to work with farmers and other organisations as the scheme develops to include a wider range of projects relevant to the sustainable land management objectives, to Park purposes, to the Park’s Management Plan and to its Nature Recovery Action Plan.
So, in Year 1, we will encourage projects that include:
- Enhancing treescapes with low density planting, shelterbelts and hedges of local native provenance
- Conserving and enhancing countryside and cultural resources
- Controlling Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS)
- Targeted measures to support curlew conservation and recovery
- Enhancing water quality and natural flood management
For registered commons
Additionally, if you are applying on behalf of a registered and constituted commoners association and would like to explore options for controlling fuel load to mitigate and prevent arson-related wildfire, we would be happy to help you develop ideas in discussion with your freeholder.
Payment rates
We pay at the standard intervention rate set by Rural Payments Wales of 40%, based on the specifications set by Rural Payments Wales (https://www.gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2025-05/ffermio-bro-farming-in-designated-landscapes-technical-specifications_0.pdf ).
Where the technical specification cannot be used, for example because of environmental considerations specific to the farmed land in question, we will offer up to 40% grant value of the actual costs, requiring the applicant to procure the work in accordance with our procurement rules and provide written evidence, i.e., written quotes from professional third parties, of the value of the work. We will retain a record of why the standard cost has not been applied and why this procurement route has had to be followed, along with other information on the project.
Where a proposal is received where no standard cost is available, we will offer up to 100% of the costs where there is a demonstrable, direct environmental gain and the farmer will not make a private commercial gain and / or it is not linked to primary production.
Your proposals will need to be ecologically coherent and viable, meet our funding criteria and be completed by February 28th to provide us with sufficient time to process all information with Rural Payments Wales.
We will consider contributing towards capital machinery purchases where relevant and where the applicant(s) demonstrates that the machinery / kit will be used for several years subsequently, relating directly to the project works completed.
Avoiding double-funding
Where you have received or are about to receive funding under another Welsh Government-funded scheme, you must provide us with a written assurance that you are not or will not be receiving funding for the same works that you are applying for under Ffermio Bro.
Key contacts and contact details:
Ffermio Bro Project Officer (Katie Parkinson)
07929 858883
Years 2 and 3
We’re developing ideas for Years 2 and 3. So, we’d welcome discussing your ideas about how to grow this scheme in ways that meet the objectives for sustainable land management (in line with the Agriculture (Wales) Act 2023) and align with our strategic objectives. For Year 2 onwards, through collaborative co-development with farmers and the National Park’s Local Nature Partnership we will support projects that build on the foundations established during Year 1 as well as seek additional funding and finance to develop complementary wrap-around projects and programmes.
Examples of what we’re thinking include:
- encouraging innovation and knowledge transfer
- co-operative working, investigating added value
- stimulating local enterprise networks and other area-based clusters
- preparatory work and pilots for natural capital and PES markets
- reducing carbon emissions and plastic waste, developing renewable energy bi-products e.g., biochar biomass rings, machinery rings, local conservation grazing schemes, burning management partnerships
- local INNS control agreements (links with biochar)
- additional larger scale treescape restoration (scrub development, coedcae restoration, riparian tree restoration, wood pasture, woodland connectivity actions)
- natural flood management and nutrient management interventions (soil conservation, contour planting, ditch-blocking, leaky woody structures installation, interception ponds and levées, wood pasture development etc.),
- commons management plans
- commons association enablement and support, bracken and Molinia control (links with biochar)
- soil management workshops
- area-based habitat restoration plans
- bespoke habitat and features restoration interventions for smaller commons with significant Scheduled Ancient Monument interests
- area-based grassland conservation and restoration plans
- area-based species restoration interventions (e.g., curlew, butterflies and moths, dragonflies and damselflies, bats, farmland birds, dormouse)
- integrated access improvements to provide more accessible natural greenspace, and dark skies interventions
What are your ideas? We’d appreciate hearing from you: ff********@*************ov.uk
Please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on the Tirweddau Cymru Ffermio Bro web site.