EXMOOR'S moorlands are set to benefit from a £1 million-plus boost to help secure their future conservation and enhancement.

A partnership set up to ensure the unique landscape and its communities continue to thrive has been awarded £662,500 of Heritage Lottery cash to deliver a total of 20 projects over the next three years.

The grant aid will cover around half the cost of the scheme, with matched funding from six of the 12 partners, income from events and activities and further bids for funding expected to meet the shortfall.

The Exmoor National Park Authority will lead the initiative, with other partners including English Heritage, the National Trust, National Farmers Union, Exmoor Society, Active Exmoor, Environment Agency, Exmoor Trust, Field Studies Council, West Somerset Community College, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Natural England.

The projects will be delivered in three programmes, with the first focusing on reconnecting people with their moorland heritage, moving on to reconnecting livelihoods to the moorland and finally, reconditioning the moorland landscape.

Initiatives in the pipeline include improving access, creating new links with surrounding communities and providing more opportunities for schools, colleges and volunteers to study and record the history and wildlife of the moorlands.

A pilot scheme to employ farm-based 'moorkeepers' is also planned, along with a project to train moorland apprentices to carry out management and conservation tasks.

Measures to tackle eyesores on the moor, the protection of archaeological sites and support for the management of Exmoor ponies will also be introduced, as well as a pilot study of techniques for restoring former moorlands.

The partnership was born following a moorlands review launched in 2004 to mark the 50th anniversary of Exmoor as a national park.

National park head of conservation and land management Dr Graham Wills said the partnership was absolutely delighted that the Heritage Lottery had recognised the importance of the moorlands to Exmoor and its communities.

"It has taken a huge amount of work to get this far, yet in some ways the real work is about to begin and we look forward to working with our partners to take this exciting scheme forward," he said.

Rachel Thomas, chairman of the Exmoor Society, which chaired the partnership bid for funding, said some of the projects which came out of a report commissioned by her organisation - Moorlands at a Crossroads - now had a chance to be put into operation.

These included the moorkeepers scheme, employing local people with local knowledge and improving the moorland landscape.