CFE relaunches as Championing the Farmed Environment

On February 26th, CFE were pleased to host representatives of our partners and supporters and member of the farming and conservation communities to mark its relaunch, 10 years after inception, as Championing the Farmed Environment.

The event, held at the Farmers & Fletchers in the City venue, included presentations by a panel formed of speakers from organisations involved with CFE, including NFU Deputy President Guy Smith and Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust’s Jim Egan.

We also heard from Merseyside farmer Olly Harrison on his work to support wildlife on his farm, and Kirsty Brannan – Farm Conservation & Woodland Advisor with Oakbank Game & Conservation Ltd – on the value of CFE in supporting farmers to adopt farm management which works for both the environment and their businesses.

The presentations were followed by a drinks reception and lively discussion around the opportunities and challenges of environmental management within productive farm businesses.

As a unique partnership of organisations which support sustainable farming practices, CFE plays a key role in promoting partnership-working between groups who have common ground in this are. The next stage of CFE offers a great opportunity to strengthen and build on the partnerships it has forged over the last 10 years.

There are many groups promoting and championing good environmental farm management and the CFE partnership is a fantastic tool for making this support and guidance as accessible and applicable to farmers as possible.

The first step in the roll-out of new CFE resources is the new website, which is now live at www.cfeonline.org.uk, and I’d welcome any feedback from users; I am always eager to improve the tools CFE offer to suit the people using them.

The national relaunch will be followed by regional events across England, details of which will be soon be available in the Events section of the new website.

Laura Harpham is the CFE Project Officer.