More education, research and funding required for uplands

Issues with land abandonment are slowly starting to creep in to some upland areas, thereby threatening the fabric of the environment and the future viability of such rural areas. This was a warning delivered by Teagasc adviser Caitriona Foley at last week’s Teagasc national hill sheep conference held in Dungarvan, Co Waterford.

In setting the scene for farming in the county, Caitriona outlined that the sheep flock in Waterford has reduced from 140,000 head in 2014 to just 62,000 head in the December 2023 sheep census. Approximately 70% of ewes are of a hill breed or crossbreed with ewe numbers becoming increasingly confined to hill / upland areas such as the Comeragh Mountains and more marginal lands.

Caitriona explained that it is easy to see why ewe numbers have fallen in recent years citing that the yearly income for a hill farm in 2023 was €12,300. She said it was simply ‘not doable’ for farmers to devote the same level of commitment and worse still attract new and young blood to the hill sheep sector.

Those in attendance were told that traditions on the mountain need to be passed on from generation to generation with Caitriona commenting that if the skills of farmers and hefted sheep are lost then they will be almost impossible to replace.

The challenges for uplands are numerous. Caitriona outlined 10 key threats including the age profile of farmers, challenging work environment, poor financial returns, labour availability, migration of young people, land abandonment, declining biodiversity, status of blanket bogs being bad, over/undergrazing and burning.

She said that a plan is needed to safeguard and enhance the future of upland areas. The starting point of any plan needs to identify key goals, “if you want to deliver long-term change you need to know what you want to change, why you want to change it and how to achieve it”.

The experience of the Comeragh Uplands Communities EIP Project shows that education is a large component of bringing about change in upland areas. It found that more education is needed regarding providing ecosystem services. Furthermore participatory research is required to identify optimum management with many traditional views on how best to manage upland areas no longer applicable. The upland EIPs showed that this can be delivered through targeted knowledge transfer programmes.

But education alone will not drive change, funding and support are also required. “Delivering change not only requires money but also the hearts and minds of the people”. The financial incentive of farming in the uplands has for decades been focused on food production. If policy wishes for farming of animals in areas to be reduced or altered then Caitriona states that there needs to be finance provided for protecting habitats and restoration programmes. Tasks such as large scale rewetting, addressing invasive species and reversing peat erosion are all demanding of labour and also costly to implement.

The EIPs also showed that there are opportunities to integrate local farmers and non-rural farming communities based on the natural and cultural heritage, providing a better understanding of what different groups want to see in the future for upland areas.

According to Caitriona there is no one-size-fits-all solution to managing upland areas. “There is a need for upland management systems that maintain the upland farming (managing) tradition while developing a new range of economic, environmental, and socially viable systems that will attract the next generation – rural development”.

There are merits seen in results-based concepts but it is viewed that these need to be repeated continually with mountains requiring long term continuity.

Caitriona stressed that “less talk and more action” is required. For example the landscape actions in the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) are eagerly awaited while targeted local actions are also required to tackle issues specific to different upland areas. Farmers must have buy-in to schemes with their experience vital.

It was highlighted that farmers alone cannot physically bring about change and that the blueprint must combine commonage groups, action groups, advisory groups and community assistance.

Over 34 people from a wide range of departments, institutions, organisations, projects and communities contribute to the EIP uplands.

Thus a collaborative and integrated approach built on creating trust and integrating ecosystem services is seen as the optimum solution.