Ideal-HNV

High Nature Value farmland is typically extensive or low intensity farming frequently associated with high biodiversity as well as supporting a range of wildlife habitats. EU Member States are required to identify areas with HNV farming practices and support them through Rural Development Programmes.

The Ideal-HNV project aims to describe High Nature Value farming systems in the Irish context and to identify those areas likely to contain HNV farmland. This project aims to:

• Estimate the national distribution and extent of potential HNV farmland in Ireland. This will be largely accomplished through indicator-based probability assessments based on existing national-scale datasets.
• Examine the use of remote sensing methods to identify HNV areas at the farm scale. This is a novel application of remote sensing to test its utility in identifying HNV and non-HNV farming systems in a case study area.
• Develop bottom-up decision-support tools to assist field- and farm-scale identification of HNV farmland. This work will develop a farm-scale decision support tool to guide on-farm assessment of HNV status and produce user-friendly support (e.g.mobile apps, online resources). It will also define and explain priority characteristics of, and threats to, selected case study areas of HNV farming systems.
• Profile the socio-economic characteristics of HNV farming systems in Ireland.

See also the project website: http://idealhnv.wordpress.com

For further information, contact Dr John Finn, john.finn(at)teagasc.ie

Funding and duration

This project is made possible by an award from the DAFM, Research Stimulus Fund (RSF 11/S/108)