Local Grazing Schemes are those in which a best practice approach towards the collaborative achievement of truly sustainable conservation land management is carried out. The concept involves grazing schemes in which local partners work together on local sites using local stock and producing public and private goods (meat, wool, diary products etc). The term is now widely applied to a whole spectrum of conservation grazing systems, from low or non-intervention systems incorporating wild herbivores to highly managed food production units, from site-based to landscape-scale initiatives, in rural and urban settings. Some marker points along this spectrum are described below. Please also see our Conservation Grazing Map for examples and the Local Grazing Scheme guide for more information on the orginial prototype LGS.

Multi - objective landscape scale initiatives
These are landscape scale partnership projects with multiple partners delivering social, economic and ecological objectives of which grazing and land management are one element e.g. the Neroche Landscape Partnership Project on the Blackdown Hills of Somerset.

Grazing facilitators
This involves the highly focussed facilitation of appropriate grazing land management through a grazing "dating agency" which puts graziers in touch with landmanagers needing grazing.  It may include other grazing related elements such as sharing equipement and expertise.  An example is www.sheepkeep.co.uk in the North Wessex Downs AONB

Naturalistic grazing systems
These include grazing and land management practices that aim to allow natural processes to be the driving forces in over large areas, e.g. Wild Ennerdale, the Knepp Estate, also the National Park Veluwezoom in Holland. 

Pastoral systems
(i) Grazing partnerships based around a single resrve or site where conservation organisations and surrounding farmers work together (s) e.g. Wiltshire Wildlife Trust's Blakehill Farm
(ii) Multiple-site graziers using a "flying" flock or herd that is used graze conservation sites within a defined geographical area e.g. Cotswolds project, Morecambe Bay
(iii) Community-led grazing projects that are not run by conservation organisations e.g. the Parish Grassland Project based at St. Briavels in the Forest of Dean 
(iv) Organisational collaborations where several organisations contribute different but complementary skills and resources e.g. Chancellors Farm, Somerset Wildlife Trust, Mendip Hills
(v) Shepherded flocks and herds which are walked on and off sites daily and shepherded on site, e.g. Ashdown Forest Conservators, Ashdown Forest, Sussex and flocks in Germany and Holland
(vi) Hefted flocks, using and developing the natural inclination of stock to stay within a home range, e.g. Malvern Hills Conservators, Malvern 
(vii) Commercial farm based systems, e.g. Brimpts Farm on Dartmoor
(viii) Single site graziers – one grazier grazes one site, e.g. Sutton Park NNR, Birmingham City Council, Birmingham

Feral and wild herbivores
There is also increasing interest in using feral and wild animals for conservation grazing.  Current examples include the use of feral goats on Ventnor Downs, Isle of Wight and Red Deer on Exmoor. There is still work to be done in identifying the legislative requirements for these systems in terms of welfare and husbandry which the GAP welfare group is currently involved with.  Please contact us for more information.