The Climate SouthWest Agriculture and Forestry Group has been re-established, with the group meeting for the first time in September 2009. The group is chaired by Paul Cottington from the National Farmers Union (NFU) and includes representation from a number of regional organisations working within the agriculture, forestry and land-use sectors. The group has now agreed its Terms of Reference an action plan for 2010/11, which includes developing case studies and an online directory of companies offering climate change-related goods and services to farmers, and holding a repeat event of the successful Climate Change Trade Fair that was held in February 2010.

In September 2009 the Forestry Commission launched the South West's Regional Woodland and Forestry Framework. This Framework aims to be the first point of focus on the future of the region’s woods and forests; on the one hand to identify how the region can benefit more from woods and on the other hand, how the region can become a better custodian of its woods and forests, and responsibly nurture them into the future. The framework takes into account the need to adapt to climate change in managing our woods and forests. The framework and implementation plan can be found from this link: www.forestry.gov.uk/southwest-rwff. Climate SouthWest supported and participated in the extensive consultation leading to the production of this new framework.

Climate SouthWest's 'Climate Change Farm' video on YouTube. A short video from Climate SouthWest was put on YouTube in January 2009. In the video 'Climate Change Farm', Mark Diacono shows how he has adapted Otter Farm in Devon to climate change. By growing produce that was once seen as marginal, such as almonds and olives, he demonstrates the new opportunities that are becoming available to farmers in South West England. The video is on the oursouthwest YouTube channel - for direct link to the video click here: Climate Change Farm.

Work led by the Royal Agricultural College, which conducted research assessing farmer attitudes to Climate Change in the South West, has highlighted key messages from the research to the European Commission and member states, as Climate SouthWest attended a meeting on climate change impacts on agriculture as part of the EU’s preparation for a Green Paper on Climate Change Adaptation. Nearly 1000 farmers were targeted with over 300 replies. Over half the farmers responded that climate change was important or extremely important to their business, over 80% said they had noticed effects of climate change on their own farm, but over half also admitted that their knowledge of how climate change would impact on them was average to poor. Work is ongoing to highlight the challenges and opportunities that climate change poses to the agriculture sector.

During November 2006 the Royal Agricultural College updated the www.oursouthwest.com "Wildlife Friendly Farming Guide" to take account of climate change adaptation measures.

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