Wildlife-friendly farmers in the Fens hope their collaborative efforts for nature can help them shape new environmental funding policies.
The Ely Nature-Friendly Farming Zone (NFFZ) is a group of 30 members ranging from major agricultural businesses to smaller family farms, spanning a large area around the Norfolk/Cambridgeshire border.
Their goals include enhancing their unique environment for its special wildlife, sharing knowledge to maximise their efforts and using their combined voice to improve the public perception of their industry.
But, following a lull during the Covid lockdown, they have revived their busy programme of meetings, farm visits and expert discussions - at a crucial time for the farming environment.
Last week, Defra revealed more details of its Sustainable Farming Incentive - the first of three tiers of the new Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS) which will replace the EU's system of land-based subsidies, being phased out after Brexit.
The members of the Ely NFFZ have already been involved in a "test and trial" for one aspect of the scheme last year.
Now a meeting is being organised in February at which they hope to speak to Defra officials while they are designing the next two ELMS tiers - Landscape Recovery and Local Nature Recovery.
RSPB conservation officer Bethany Kiamil, a facilitator for the Ely NFFZ, said: "The members of this group want to do the best they can for farming and wildlife at the same time.
"They have all been in agri-environment schemes, and they have all expressed a wish to help create a scheme to do what past schemes should have been able to do.
"They know what has worked here in the Fens, and what has not worked in the past, so if there is an opportunity to feed into the design of these new schemes they will take it.
"The group hopes that the new ELM schemes will deliver what they aim to do, and what farmers need them to deliver to enhance the environment within the farmed landscape while still producing good quality, healthy, sustainable food for everyone.
"That is one of the reason this group wants to influence it where they can. They are advocating for wildlife within a productive and sustainable business, and that is what ELMS needs to deliver."
One of the farmers involved is Tom Clarke, who runs a 400ha family business at Green Farm near Ely.
"Everything is changing," he said. "We had a lull but we we are reinvigorated now, and part of that is because everything is up for grabs in terms of policy.
"If we don't step up and say what works for us, we will be lumbered with a system that is not tailored to what we need in the particular soils of the Fens, rather than the heavy clay or sandy loam of other areas.
"And a lot of the new environmental schemes are about what we can do together, not just on our own."
Mr Clarke has has invited members of the Ely Photographic Club to photograph the amazing range of wildlife on his farm, including marsh harriers, owls, hares and deer.
"This group is showing the public that the Fens might be flat but it is not boring - and it is certainly not just intensive food production," he said.
"It is easy for people to think they live in a nature desert, but we have got birds and hares and deer all over the place."
Another active group member is Ali Glover, who was a veterinary nurse for 30 years before becoming an office administrator at Legge Farms, based at Southery, near Downham Market.
She said communication was vital for the Ely NFFZ, with meetings and a WhatsApp group used to share ideas and advice between members, while a Facebook page tells stories of the group's achievements to the public.
The 5,000 acre farm where she works has been involved in stewardship schemes for more than 20 years, planting buffer strips, hedges and reedbeds, and creating a wetland area which has attracted wintering waders and a breeding pair of marsh harriers.
She said: "It is important to preserve the Fenlands as much as we can, to preserve its flora and fauna all the special species that live here.
"We try to encourage skylarks on the farm, and we have barn owls, marsh harriers, bitterns, corn buntings, water voles and otters have been seen.
"The next six months are crucial and it would be great for the Ely NFFZ to be heard by Defra.
"What we are trying to do is create an environment where farming and nature can work alongside each other. We have more chance of achieving that together."
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