The latest figures from Natural England confirm that a record 6.5 million hectares of English farmland - representing over 70 percent of the country's available farmland - is now covered by Environmental Stewardship schemes.

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Welcoming the news, Poul Christensen, Chair of Natural England, said, "The fact that well over two thirds of England's farmland is now being managed with the support of Environmental Stewardship is clear evidence of the commitment that land managers are making to help look after our countryside and wildlife.  The farming sector, along with the conservation and industry groups in the Campaign for the Farmed Environment partnership have played an important part in helping land managers to reach such a significant target and we can be justifiably proud of this achievement.”

Jim Egan, Chair of the Campaign for the Farmed Environment Delivery and Communications Group added, "The vast majority of farmers and land managers view support for the natural environment as part and parcel of running productive farm businesses."

Environmental Stewardship was first introduced in the UK in 2005. Uptake of the schemes has risen and earlier agri-environment schemes have been incorporated into ES.

Natural England said on Wednesday that, with over 45,000 Environmental Stewardship agreements now in place, the government body is now targeting those projects that offer the most wide-ranging environmental gains. The quango added that "recent changes have been made to entry Level Scheme options to increase the benefits that ES investment is able to deliver for the environment."

County-by-county information on what ES is delivering locally and a selection of case studies about the farmers that are involved is now available from the Natural England website.

The Environmental Stewardship scheme, managed by Natural England, aims to support land management work that conserves wildlife and natural resources and improves public access.  A 2009 review of Agri-Environment schemes in the UK suggested that the projects, which see £400 million is invested through Environmental Stewardship into the environmental management of England's farmland each year, benefit the wider rural community, sustaining up to 15,000 jobs and generating additional spending estimated at as much as £850 million per year

However, the first evaluation of the schemes' efficacy in the UK, published in July 2012, showed insufficient uptake and delivery of effective environmental stewardship measures is currently limiting support threatened species, particularly farmland birds. The researchers concluded that "A combination of low uptake of key in-field options that provide winter seed and a failure to cover the late-winter period effectively explains the lack of national population responses [to ES schemes]. Such issues need to be addressed before schemes like Environmental Stewardship will achieve their goals."