A new book titled Farming for Nature: The Role of Results-Based Payments has been published by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and Teagasc.

Announcing its launch, Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Josepha Madigan said: “Farming has shaped the Irish landscape over many centuries and plays a dominant role in the fortunes of our native Irish flora and fauna, habitats and waterways.

“This book presents various lessons learned over decades of work involving farmers and practitioners, who have helped evolve new approaches to farming for nature in modern Ireland.”

The book would serve as a review of what has been achieved to date and provide important considerations for the future, Minister Madigan said.

Frontrunners

Several projects in Ireland have been the frontrunners in the design and implementation of results-based approaches focused on farmland biodiversity. The approach has been a focus of discussions around improving environmental performance of the EU’s agri-environmental policies.

The case studies detailed in the book include: the Burren Programme, AranLIFE, KerryLIFE, the NPWS Farm Plan Scheme and Result-Based Agri-environmental Payment Schemes (RBAPS) project.

The case studies and accompanying chapters share some of the Irish experience by providing actual farm plans and scoring sheets, as well as detailing governance mechanisms, the role of advisory services, the choice of indicators, monitoring details and the relationship between results and payment.

The book also reflects on the scientific background to results-based approaches and their policy context.

It is planned to physically launch the book in autumn 2020, but is available now for free download on the NPWS website.