Economic Appraisal
When developing this project the partnership felt it was very important to look at the cost and benefits of this change in management to see if it was a viable and sustainable option.
We appointed Eftec, economists for the environment, to assess the project, looking at not only the pounds & pence cost but potential wider benefits including:
- The actual cost of this type of management.
- The biodiversity enhancements achieved on project sites.
- The detection of Invasive Alien Species.
- The additional benefits the project volunteers brought.
- An estimate through value transfer.
The final report reveals substantial cost saving through this change in management from cutting several times a year to cutting and lifting once a year, and in three years the project sites were showing improvement in the ratio of flowering plants to grasses.
The full report can be downloaded in the reports section here.
