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Around 4,000 farmers in special protection areas (SPAs) for hen harriers can now apply to join the programme through their agricultural advisers, or the project's website, Hen Harrier Project manager Fergal Monaghan told the Irish Farmers Journal.
Listen to an interview with Fergal Monaghan in our podcast below:
"I am delighted to fund this initiative for €25m under our Rural Development Programme. This is a prime example of a locally led, results-based scheme, which will combine meaningful conservation measures with a strong local focus of delivery to farmers in the six SPA hen harrier areas," Minister Creed said.
Some 80% of the funds will be paid directly to farmers, with the rest going towards administration costs.
Consultation
The programme was designed on 12 development farms and in consultation with more than 500 farmers in SPAs, who took part in dozens of local meetings this year. It was inspired by the Burren Programme in Co Clare and will attribute payments based on scores assessing the quality of hen harrier habitats in each field.
Out of 10, fields scored one to three will receive no payment and those scored four to ten will get an increasing rate. Payments will grow annually if the habitat quality improves. Grants called "supporting action payments" will be available to carry out some improvements.
The Hen Harrier Programme comes on top of GLAS – however, its payments are slighlty lower if the farm already benefits from GLAS.
For example, a 60ha GLAS farm presented at the launch of the programme can receive between €2,642/year at the score of four and €4,927 if all fields hit the maximum score of 10.
With supporting action payments and a potential hen harrier payment if the endangered birds are present on or near the farm in certain conditions, this 60ha farm could claim up to €7,527/year, or €8,600 if it was not in GLAS.
Read full details of the programme in next week's Irish Farmers Journal.
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