Flanagan said that a long-term strategy was needed to manage commonages and the uplands.
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The Government needs to work with landowners to implement a long-term strategy to maximise the potential of uplands, Midlands-North-West MEP Luke Ming Flanagan has said.
Following a meeting in Brussels with representatives from the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) and EU Commission officials, Flanagan criticised government policy for the uplands in a statement on Thursday.
He said that destocking of the uplands in the late '90s was “a blunt instrument” to address overgrazing occurring in some areas. This then led to undergrazing of upland vegetation, which has subsequently deemed land ineligible for EU payments, according to Flanagan.
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This was described as “lack of vision” in the statement, with Flanagan saying that a “targeted response” was need to the issues of overgrazing at the time, instead of blanket destocking with no review of maximum stocking rates.
GLAS
The Midlands-North-West MEP added that the Government failed to address the issue again in the implementation of GLAS by not adopting a policy suggested by some landowners where requirements for areas of commonage would be set out by ecologists for farmers to comply with.
He described penalties through the greening element of CAP for farmers not complying with ecological focus areas and penalties for hill farmers undergrazing upland vegetation as “a great paradox”.
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The Government needs to work with landowners to implement a long-term strategy to maximise the potential of uplands, Midlands-North-West MEP Luke Ming Flanagan has said.
Following a meeting in Brussels with representatives from the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) and EU Commission officials, Flanagan criticised government policy for the uplands in a statement on Thursday.
He said that destocking of the uplands in the late '90s was “a blunt instrument” to address overgrazing occurring in some areas. This then led to undergrazing of upland vegetation, which has subsequently deemed land ineligible for EU payments, according to Flanagan.
This was described as “lack of vision” in the statement, with Flanagan saying that a “targeted response” was need to the issues of overgrazing at the time, instead of blanket destocking with no review of maximum stocking rates.
GLAS
The Midlands-North-West MEP added that the Government failed to address the issue again in the implementation of GLAS by not adopting a policy suggested by some landowners where requirements for areas of commonage would be set out by ecologists for farmers to comply with.
He described penalties through the greening element of CAP for farmers not complying with ecological focus areas and penalties for hill farmers undergrazing upland vegetation as “a great paradox”.
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