England Rural Development Programme is the instrument by which the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) fulfills its rural development obligations in England, as set out by the European Union. It is derived primarily from Council Regulation European Union Regulation No. 1257/1999 and the related successive implementing Commission Regulations (1750/1999 and subsequent amending regulations 445/2002, 817/2004). England Rural Development Programme 2000-2006 The England Rural Development Programme 2000-2006 included the following schemes: Environmental Stewardship Scheme (introduced in March 2005): Provides funding to farmers and other land managers in England who deliver effective environmental management on their land. Countryside Stewardship Scheme (closed to new applicants and superseded by the Environmental Stewardship Scheme): Made payments to farmers and other land managers to enhance and conserve English landscapes, their wildlife and history and to help people to enjoy them. Environmentally Sensitive Areas Scheme (closed to new applicants and superseded by the Environmental Stewardship Scheme): Offered incentives to encourage farmers to adopt agricultural practices which would safeguard and enhance parts of the country of particularly high landscape, wildlife or historic value. Energy Crops Scheme Provided establishment grants for short-rotation coppice and miscanthus, and aid to help short-rotation coppice growers set up producer groups. Farm Woodland Premium Scheme (closed to new applicants and superseded by the English Woodland Grant Scheme): Provided annual financial incentives to farmers to convert productive agricultural land to woodland with the objective of enhancing the environment, improving the landscape, providing new habitats and increasing biodiversity. Woodland Grant Scheme (closed to new applicants and superseded by the English Woodland Grant Scheme): Provided grants for the establishment of woodland. English Woodland Grant Scheme (introduced in 2005): Provides a suite of grants aimed at sustaining and increasing the public benefits given by existing woodlands and helping to create new woodlands to deliver additional public benefit. Organic Farming Scheme (closed to new applicants and superseded by the Environmental Stewardship Scheme): Provided financial help during the process of converting from conventional to organic farming methods. Hill Farm Allowance: Aims to contribute to the maintenance of the social fabric in upland communities through support for continued agricultural land use and help to preserve the farmed upland environment by ensuring that land in the Less Favoured Areas is managed in a sustainable way. Rural Enterprise Scheme (closed to new applicants): Provided assistance for projects that help to develop more sustainable, diversified and enterprising rural economies and