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The Department of Agriculture announced this Tuesday that it had signed the management contract with the Hen Harrier Project Ltd after a tender process that concluded last month.
The consortium is headed by Co Galway agricultural adviser Fergal Monaghan and brings together the conservation organisation Golden Eagle Trust and Brendan O’Gorman Accountants. The consortium can be paid up to €3.5m to manage the scheme over the next six years, according to tender documents.
Monaghan told the Irish Farmers Journal that after a few weeks to establish the team, the project would enter consultations with farming organisations and individual farmers to design the scheme.
I hope to have farmers in the scheme in 2017
Applications are expected to open immediately afterwards. “I hope to have some farmers in the scheme in 2017,” said Monaghan, adding that applications would then remain open into 2018. “We aim to develop additional income options to sustain communities in an uplands farming landscape,” he said.
This is going to be a locally led agri-environmental scheme (LLAES) funded by the European Innovation Partnership, which Monaghan said allows more flexibility than traditional CAP schemes. For example, it does not have to operate on a calendar year basis. There is no obligation either to make the scheme prescription-based, with a menu of actions to choose from and comply with as is the case with GLAS. The project's manager also said that it would be "dynamic" and could evolve over time.
No duplication with GLAS
One constraint Monaghan mentioned is that the hen harrier scheme cannot duplicate existing measures. “We cannot pay farmers twice for actions already taken under GLAS,” he offered as an example.
The Department of Agriculture stated that the scheme was aimed at “creating sustainable farming systems that work for both the farmers and the bird, and deliver real socio-economic benefits to the areas concerned”.
Farmers in hen harrier areas want to see the benefits of this measure working immediately
IFA hill farming chair Pat Dunne said the hen harrier should address the restrictions that designations have on farmers’ land and income. “Farmers in hen harrier areas want to see the benefits of this measure working immediately with payments being made without delay once plans have been drawn up,” Dunne added.
Another €10m earmarked for a similar scheme in fresh water pearl mussel conservation areas is still awaiting the appointment of a management team.
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