§ 197. Mr. du Cannasked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he will study the agreement reached between the Exmoor national park committee, the National Farmers Union and the Country Landowners Association on the basis for assessment of the financial terms of management agreements for the conservation of moorland in the national parks; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MonroAs my right hon. Friend knows, I regard management agreements voluntarily entered into as one of the most important ways open to the National Parks Committee to ensure the protection and sound management of moorland.
If such agreements are to become an accepted instrument for this purpose it is obviously essential that the financial basis upon which they are to be negotiated should be generally recognised as fair and equitable. I am therefore delighted that the National Parks Committee, the National Farmers Union and the Country Landowners Association should have thought it right to tackle this problem and that they have been able to reach such a full measure of agreement.
I am sure that the negotiation of appropriate management agreements within the framework of the special national parks supplementary grant arrangements for moorland conservation in Exmoor, which the Government announced on 23 October 1980 in another place, will be greatly facilitated by these new agreed financial guidelines.