Irish / Scottish Comparison of Environmental Protection

Scotland (UK)

Biodiversity: the UK Action Plan was published in 1994. It established fundamental principles for future biodiversity conservation in the UK. These are:

• Partnership - action involving the mutual co-operation of statutory, voluntary, academic and business sectors at both national and local levels.
• Targets - the establishment of measurable outcomes that address the needs of species and habitat types of most concern to biodiversity conservation.
• Policy Integration - recognise that shifts in policy are needed to reverse the decline in the UK biodiversity resource and to support sustainable development in all sectors of society.
• Information - while sound science and knowledge should underpin decisions, recognise that new approaches are required to fill information gaps and understanding and to manage the information already available more efficiently.
• Public Awareness- public understanding and action is needed to support the changes needed to maintain biodiversity.

Action plans to conserve species and habitats were drawn up. There are now 391 species action plans and 45 habitat action plans.

Ireland

In April 2002, the National Biodiversity Plan was published, addressing the conservation of habitats, species, genetic diversity and the natural heritage.

A key component to implementing the National Biodiversity Plan will be the Biodiversity Action Plans drawn up by each relevant Department (including Agriculture) and agency (including Teagasc). These Sectoral Action Plans will aim to ensure the conservation use of biodiversity is actively pursued by each Government Department and agency. These plans will be subject to a review after a period of five years.

As the main land use in Ireland, agriculture is the most important factor affecting terrestrial biodiversity. It is necessary not only to minimise adverse effects on biodiversity due to agriculture, but also to ensure agriculture makes a positive contribution to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

Key issues relate to:

1. the role of protected areas;
2. reducing and eliminating damaging effects of agriculture in general (e.g. overgrazing, water pollution);
3. encouraging and supporting farming which is compatible with biodiversity;
4. providing supports for the conservation, including the enhancement, of specific biodiversity habitats/features.

Scotland

Uncropped Field Margins:

From SEERAD Arable Area Payment Scheme 2002: Explanatory Booklet

27.    The field boundary is considered to be the area between the recognised centre of the boundary (the fence or midpoint of a hedge, ditch etc) and the edge of the crop or forage area. The current IACS Regulation allows you to claim the total FIS area of a field where it is fully utilised according to customary agricultural practice.

28.    AAPS aid may normally only be paid on field margins where the distance from the centre of the boundary to the edge of the crop is no more than 2 metres at all points throughout its length. However, you may exceed that 2 metres limit and base your AAPS claim on full field areas (including any traditional field margins, i.e. hedges, walls and ditches) where these have long been an important element of the landscape and managed under good agricultural practice.

Ireland

Net area of parcel:

From DAFRD EU Area Aid Applications 2002 Helpsheet / Terms & Conditions

In the case of each parcel for which Arable Aid is claimed:

you must enter the actual area sown

or,

where the parcel is claimed as set-aside, the actual eligible area being set aside. Again, necessary deductions must be made for areas under buildings; woods; ponds; paths; farm roads; expanses of bare rock; boglands; permanent or horticultural crops; trees; pylons; ditches; drains; rock outcrops; wet or waste land; areas of difficult trafficability or headlands.

Headlands are measured from the centre of the boundary fence to the edge of the crop or set-aside area.

Scotland

Management of Set-Aside Land:

From SEERAD Arable Area Payments Scheme 2002: Explanatory Booklet

The main ways of establishing a green cover are through natural regeneration, sowing a grass cover or sowing wild bird cover.

Wild Bird Cover

90.    Wild bird cover is generally left in place for 2 years, and should not be cut but be left to reseed itself in the autumn. It must be replaced if one crop group comes to dominate so that the cover is no longer a mixture where the components could not be harvested separately. It may be destroyed after one year only if you need to do so, e.g. because you wish to rotate your set-aside.

91.    Wild bird cover can provide valuable feeding grounds for both seed-eating and insect-eating birds, especially if it is left in place for 2 years or more. However, where the land remains set aside for more than one year, this cover must be replaced during the second calendar year after it was sown. For example, if the cover was sown in the spring of 2001, it must be replaced by the set-aside year commencing on 15 January 2003. However, if the cover is replaced after the first year, it need not be replaced again after the second year. You should consider wild bird cover on those parts of the farm where you wish to encourage seed-eating birds, including wild game birds, and it might usefully be sown on field margins.

What type of wild bird cover can I sow?

Wild bird cover must be a mixture of at least two crop groups, e.g. cereals and brassicas, other than legumes. The mixture chosen must be one which is not normally grown as a mixture for agricultural production and it is not practicable to harvest the components separately, i.e. a mixture of cereals and grass or of rape, kale and turnips is not acceptable. Whether or not you intend to harvest or graze it is irrelevant. What matters is whether the mixture is capable of being harvested or grazed. The mixture must be sown on the same land; you cannot sow alternate rows, or blocks, of each seed. You may add up to 5% (by weight) of legumes to the mixture. Mixtures of cereals alone or brassicas alone are not acceptable. You must ensure that the mixture remains an unharvestable mix. This is particularly important if the land is to remain in set-aside. If one component of the mix deteriorates, you must write to your local Area Office immediately and reinstate the mixture by replacing either the lost components or the whole mixture as soon as possible. Infringements will be penalised.

What steps must I take to establish a cover?

Wild bird cover is generally best established in the spring following natural regeneration over winter, although you may also sow a cover in the autumn. Up to 30 kg of nitrogen per hectare may be applied to help establishment. You are not required to cut the cover, provided that you follow in full all the rules in paragraph 99; but if you do take advantage of this derogation you must not graze, or allow the cover to be grazed, or use it in any other way, after the end of the set-aside period. If you do, you will be penalised.

Ireland

Management of Set-Aside Land:

From DAFRD EU Area Aid Applications 2002 Helpsheet / Terms & Conditions

(9)(a)(i)A green cover must be established either through the sowing of a mixture of grasses or mustard, phacelia, fodder rape or by natural regeneration before 15 January 2002.

There are over 30,000 hectares of set-aside in Ireland. A very small number of farmers got permission from the Department to sow wild bird cover. This is accommodated in 9(e)(v). Farmer's may seek by means of a written application the permission of the Department to follow their own management plans outside these options on environmental or conservation grounds.

Environmental Audit

This is an inventory of habitats on the farm. A descriptive map shows all habitats, while a management map shows those subject to payment under the scheme. If sufficiently knowledgeable about conservation, a farmer can do the audit. If a professional adviser carries out the audit, 50 to 75 per cent of the cost is covered under the scheme.

Farmer Opinion

Consultation with farmers on land management schemes in Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, found the RSS was less effective than the ESA scheme it replaced. Problems identified included: its competitive nature; lack of funds; too bureaucratic; too hard to get in; changing goalposts making it hard to plan and it encouraged point scoring rather than best management practice.

Farmers liked the ESA scheme because of its simplicity, not too much paperwork and it provided extra income. It encouraged farmers to improve the wildlife value of their farms and educated farmers on the wildlife potential of their farms. The HLCA (Headage) was also well regarded.

Rural Stewardship Scheme

Prescriptions and Rates of Payment (£ Sterling)

Birds (5)

• Extensive management of mown grassland (£150 per ha)
  Avoid the disturbance of ground nesting birds by machinery operations and delays cutting to 1 July.
• Management of open grazed grassland (£100 per ha)
  Avoid the disturbance of ground nesting birds and exclude livestock from 1 April to 15 June.
• Extensive management of mown grassland for corncrakes (£190 per ha)
  Delay mowing to 1^st August and cut from centre out.
• Management of early and late cover for corncrakes (£160 per ha)
  Leave areas between 0.15 - 1 ha with clumps of tall vegetation such as iris, nettle, cow parsley or rush, adjacent to mown grassland managed for corncrakes.
• Management of wet grassland for waders (£100 per ha)
  Exclude livestock from 1 April to 15 June, or stock at less than 1.4 LU per ha, to provide suitable breeding grounds for wading birds.

Species rich areas (5)

• Management of species rich grassland (£100 per ha)
  To encourage the growth and spread of flowering plants, do not graze or cut between 15 March to 15 August. No lime or fertiliser applied.
• Bracken eradication programme for species rich grassland, coastal or lowland heath (£25 per ha)
  Control bracken, using Asulam or other approved herbicide or by cutting.
• Creation and management of species rich grassland (£250 per ha)
  Convert arable or improved grassland to species rich grassland by reseeding with a low productivity grass and herb mix.
• Management of coastal heath (£80 per ha)
  To encourage native vegetation, exclude livestock from 1 April to 31 August, and graze from 1 September to 30 November. No fertiliser applied.
• Management of lowland heath (£115 per ha)
  Graze at less than 0.3 LU per ha and exclude livestock from 1 November to 28 February to maintain the heather, dwarf gorse and cross-leaved heath.

Moorland (4)

• Moorland management (£1 per ha)
  Carry out additional management practices, including shepherding, stock management and feeding practices.
• Stock disposal (£45 per ha)
  Reduce an agreed number of ewes to encourage the regeneration of suppressed heather or other vegetation.
• Bracken eradication programme for moorland (25 per ha)
  Control bracken, using Asulam or other approved herbicide or by cutting.

Wetland (5)

• Management of wetland (£100 per ha)
  To enhance wet grassland for birdlife and botanical diversity, exclude livestock from 1 April to 31 August.
• Management of lowland raised bogs (£70 per ha)
  To enhance bird life and botanical diversity, do not graze with cattle. Stock at less than 0.05 LU per ha and exclude from 1 November to 28 February. Block existing drains at intervals to raise or maintain the water table.
• Creation and management of wetland (£250 per ha)
  Convert arable or improved grassland to wet grassland by raising water levels to ensure it is normally saturated for a significant proportion of the year.
• Management of water margin (£400 per ha)
  Maintain a margin of 6 to 24 metres along watercourses. Livestock must normally be excluded.
• Management of flood plain (£25 per ha)
  Natural flooding must not be hindered.

Field margins and boundaries (4)

• Management of grass margin or beetle bank in arable fields (£736 per ha)
  Create strips between 1.5 and 6 metres around or across arable fields. Establish by sowing a suitable mix of grass seed.
• Management of conservation headlands (£70 or £150 per ha)
  No herbicides or pesticides to a minimum headland width of 6 metres to allow the natural development of a varied flora and habitat for insects, birds and small mammals. The higher rate is payable where no nitrogen is applied.
• Management of extended hedges (£500 per ha)
  Exclude livestock and arable cultivations from a hedge margin between 3 to 6 metres from the centre of a hedge. Exclude fertiliser, slurry and pesticides.
• Management of hedgerows (£1 per m² )
  Trim between 1 December and 1 March, no more frequently than every third year. Rejuvenate gaps by laying, coppicing or planting.

Arable (3)

• Introduction or retention of extensive cropping ((£120 or £140 per ha)
  Arable crop between 4 and 8 ha in the Less Favoured Area. No pesticides and a maximum of 250 kg of compound fertiliser. Higher rate if same site for 3 or more years.
• Management of cropped machair (£200 or £240 per ha)
  Arable crop on previously cropped machair, to encourage birds and after the crop has been harvested the site must be left fallow to revert to natural grassland for 2 to 3 years, encouraging a range of annual plants to grow and flower.
• Unharvested crops (£600 per ha)
  Spring sow a cereal based mixture including at least one legume, in plots of up to 1 ha and totalling no more than 4 ha and do not plough down until after 15 March the following year, to provide cover and feeding area for birds.

Woodland and Scrub (2)

• Management of scrub (£55 per ha)
  Cease grazing suppressed scrub and control rhododendron.
• Management of native or semi natural woodland (£100 per ha)
  Manage native or semi-natural woodland to enhance the woodland and associated flora and fauna.

Historic and Archaeological Sites (1)

Management of a site of archaeological or historic interest (£80 per 0.25 ha)

Ireland

Maintenance of External Field Boundaries

From DAFRD Good Farming Practice

• All external farm boundary and roadside fences (whether walls, hedges or post and wire fences) on land occupied by livestock, excluding commonage land and unenclosed land, should be stockproof.

Scotland

Scotland

1447 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI): 1,007,260 ha (12.8%)
226 Special Areas of Conservation (SAC): 869,207 ha
135 Special Protection Areas (SPA): 520,028 ha

Ireland

1100 Natural Heritage Areas (NHA): 750,000 ha (10%)
363 Special Areas of Conservation (SAC): 996,000 ha
110 Special Protection Areas (SPA): 223,000 ha and 25 proposed.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has individual management agreements with farmers. Natural Care contracts are available to land owners and managers for the appropriate positive management of SSSI and Natura sites. Natural Care management schemes are being developed. Examples are the Peatland Management Scheme, the Moorland Management Scheme and the Goose Management Scheme. It is expected to maximise use of the Rural Stewardship Scheme, where appropriate, before or at the time of joining the SNH scheme.

Conservation Measures

In order to increase corncrake breeding success, BirdWatch Ireland, with the support of Dúchas, the Heritage Service and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, have operated a Corncrake Conservation Project in Ireland since 1991.

BirdWatch Ireland fieldworkers in each of the core corncrake areas count singing male corncrake, and advise farmers on corncrake-friendly farming methods. Farmers with corncrakes in their meadows are eligible for entry to the Corncrake Grant Scheme. Grants are paid to those who delay mowing of hay or silage until 1 August, by which time most corncrakes should have hatched two broods. There is also a grant for mowing from the centre of the field outwards, which gives young corncrakes a chance to run towards the edges, to safety, under cover of the remaining grass.

There is often a shortage of cover available for corncrakes when they arrive in Ireland in spring. Nettles and Iris patches provide suitable early cover, and BirdWatch Ireland has been working with farmers in the corncrake areas to increase the area of such cover available.

Similar schemes operate in Scotland. A striking observation is the difference in the size of the organisations. Since its founding in 1889, the RSPB has grown into Europe's largest wildlife conservation charity, with more than a million members. In Scotland there are 170 staff employed, compared to 15 in Birdwatch Ireland.