Agri-environmental schemes have been a mainstay of the farming landscape since 1994 when it became mandatory for each EU member state to have one. The suite of four Rural Environmental Protection Scheme Programmes were credited with bringing about major improvement in the Irish landscape. The Department of Agriculture operated Agri-Environment Options Scheme or AEOS followed, opening initially in 2010 with further tranches in 2011 and 2012.

The latest agri-environmental scheme in operation is the Green Low-Carbon Agricultural Scheme (GLAS). GLAS I opened in 2015 and had an entry of some 26,000 eligible participants with contracts commencing on 01 October 2015 and lasting for five years and three months.

The scheme opened again at the end of 2015 with a further 14,000 applications submitted under GLAS tranche II with 11,500 of these deemed eligible. These farmers were given a five-year contract commencing 01 January 2016 meaning that there will be over 35,000 farmers exiting the scheme at the end of 2020.

€1bn budget

The target for the scheme was to include 50,000 farmers, with €1.4bn in funding allocated in the Rural development Plant 2014-2020. This included in the region of €390m for commitments carried over from the 2007-2013 RDP leaving a target spend for GLAS of 1.08bn.

The annual payment is worth over €200m with an average payment per applicant of €4,155

As such, there was another tranche opened for a six-week period at the end of 2016 which brought participation over 50,000.

Payment per farmer was set at a maximum of €5,000 per annum with a €2,000 higher payment under GLAS+ for farmers in high-amenity areas undertaking additional environmental benefits. The annual payment is worth over €200m with an average payment per applicant of €4,155.

The percentage of the payment reaching farmer pockets is not as high as in previous schemes but such is the profitability challenges farmers are facing that there is pressure already arising for a follow-on scheme to be available. This is already hitting home to 2,138 farmers who completed their AEOS contract in 2018.

Replanting rule limiting afforestation area

There are ambitious plans to increase the area of land entering afforestation on an annual basis. The Government’s new climate action plan has a target of over 8,000ha being planted annually for the next 10 years, but the area planted in 2018 was just half of this level.

The requirement for land to be replanted after clear-felling is said to be a significant barrier

This is despite attractive measures being introduced including establishment grants, a premium of up to €680/ha on new forestry and the ability to continue to secure the Basic Payment Scheme payment on afforested land.

There are three sticking points said to be contributing to the lower than target plantings. The requirement for land to be replanted after clear-felling is said to be a significant barrier, with significant costs facing landowners, while rules surrounding the planting of unenclosed lands is also limiting annual afforestation.

The final contributor is resistance to large tracts of land being planted, with those objecting highlighting that there needs to be marked changes in the design and layout of forestry, with large areas of sitka spruce doing little to add to biodiversity and damaging local landscapes.