21 February 2023

An overview of the ACRES Kerry / West Cork co-operation

The ACRES Kerry / West Cork co-operation project is one of eight co-operation projects across Ireland, which are working with farmers in areas of high nature conservation value as part of the Common Agricultural Policy’s national agri-environmental climate measure.

It is funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and is administered by South Kerry Development Partnership CLG (SKDP).

The overall vision for the ACRES Kerry / West Cork co-operation (CP) is ‘to work closely with the custodians of the land - the farmers and their farm advisors to support them to improve the environmental and agricultural condition of their land in a sustainable manner’, Patricia Deane, Project Manager of the ACRES Kerry / West Cork co-operation project told delegates at the National Hill Sheep Conference, held in Bantry, Co. Cork, below is her paper from the event.

Supporting our farmers into the future is essential for maintaining the rural-social network of the region and for ensuring the long-term conservation of rare and threatened habitats and species. These are living landscapes; human activities, and agriculture in particular, have played a significant role in shaping them. Farming can have both negative and positive impacts for habitats and species. If properly monitored, grazing can play an important role in maintaining diversity of species and preventing scrub encroachment in many habitats. Sustainable methods of farming can contribute to the protection of watercourses and carbon storage and sequestration. The ACRES Kerry / West Cork CP will work closely with farmers and their farm advisors to achieve our vision.

ACRES Kerry / West Cork co-operation project area

The ACRES Kerry / West Cork CP area covers commonage and private lands in south and west Kerry and west Cork stretching from the Dingle peninsula to Mizen Head, as well as offshore islands including those islands south of Skibbereen as shown in Figure 1. It covers a total area of 2,567 km2, the majority of which is High Nature Value (HNV), Natura 2000 designated land.

Figure 1: ACRES Kerry / West Cork co-operation area

For administration purposes, the ACRES Kerry / West Cork CP area has been divided into 4 sub-regions (Camp, Beaufort, Kenmare and Bantry) which have been named after the office locations. Figure 2 illustrates the boundaries of the each of the 4 sub-regions. The main Project Office is located in The Old Barracks, Beaufort with 3 additional offices located in: O’Dwyer’s Digital Hub, Camp Village; SKDP Offices, 21 Henry Street, Kenmare; and West Cork Development Partnership Office, The Warner Centre, Bantry. Two agri-environment officers will be based in each of these offices.

Figure 2: ACRES Kerry / West Cork co-operation sub-regions

ACRES Kerry / West Cork co-operation project objectives

The ACRES Kerry / West Cork CP Project has four overarching objectives:

The protection of watercourses;
Supporting carbon storage and sequestration and the protection of rare and threatened habitats;
Supporting the conservation of rare and threatened species;
The management of invasive species.

How will the CP project operate?

The ACRES Kerry / West Cork CP Project has three main elements:

Results-based habitat assessments;
Non-productive investments;
Landscape actions.

The results-based habitat assessments are designed to reward farmers that have high quality habitats on their farms and incentivise participant farmers to improve the ecological and environmental condition of their land. Habitat scorecards are used to carry out results-based assessments, whereby the participant’s farm advisor will walk over each field using the appropriate scorecard, or the CP team in the case of commonages. Each field assessed is given a score relating to its condition. The scores are linked to a payment scale with higher scores receiving higher payments. The maximum annual payment for the results-based habitat assessment is €7,000. Scorecards include: peatland, grassland, woodland/scrub, coastal grassland, chough, breeding waders, rough grazing etc.

Non-productive investments (NPIs) are supporting actions that participants can undertake on their land each year to improve the habitat quality, water quality, address the needs of a specific species or treat invasive species on their land allowing participant farmers who receive a low score to improve the habitat condition of their land and increase the habitat score over time.

Landscape Actions (LAs) are supporting actions which will also help farmers to improve the condition of their land. However, the implementation of landscape actions may be more complex due the scale and/or number of participants involved in undertaking them. Landscape actions will often require work to be carried out over large areas (often extending beyond the land boundaries of a single participant) and require cooperative input from more than one participant. Farmers and the CP team will work closely when designing landscape actions.

The maximum annual budget available for NPIs and LAs is €3,500; however, in some cases farmers may be allowed to exceed this annual budget so long as they don’t exceed the overall budget amount over the five-year contract. An example could be carrying out treatment of invasive species across a number of farms or commonages.

Supports to participant farmers and pitfalls to avoid

Farm advisors will play a crucial role in supporting the delivery of the ACRES Kerry / West Cork CP and it is essential that they are provided with in-depth training and ongoing support. While some farm advisors may have experience of results-based schemes through EIP projects, the concept will be new to many. To address this issue, targeted training will be delivered to all participating farm advisors in May 2023, which will cover the use of scorecards and the implementation of NPIs. Training methods and content will be standardised across all CP areas so that a farm advisor that completes a training course with one CP Team will have the necessary skills to undertake assessments in other CP areas also.

Participant training is one of the priority actions proposed by the Kerry / West Cork CP team to achieve our objectives. Our participants, the farmers, are the custodians of the land, and significant environmental improvement will only be possible with their support and the support of their farm advisors. Farmer training was an integral component in a number of Environmental Innovation Projects (EIPs). For many farmers not previously involved in EIPs, this might be their first time participating in an agri-environmental scheme. It is critical therefore that they understand the purpose and goals of the scheme.

Habitat training will be delivered to participants to increase their knowledge and understanding of the importance of the habitats and species associated with their land and to develop a greater understanding of the impacts associated with management actions on the land. The CP team aims to train farmers in four specific areas including:

Water quality;
Priority habitats;
Priority species;
Invasive species.

In addition to this, it is envisaged that farmers will require training on specific NPIs and LAs. Specialist training will be given to participants as required, to support them in implementing NPIs and LAs in their annual work plan and to ensure that these actions are carried out correctly using best practice methods. Specialist training is likely to include, but is not limited to, the following:

QQI Level 5 pesticide training;
Best practice methods on the treatment of rhododendron;
Best practice methods on the treatment of Himalayan balsam;
Tree planting and hedgerow maintenance;
Protecting barn owls and kestrels (siting nest boxes, improving foraging habitat and the impacts of rodenticides);
Protecting chough (habitat management and impacts of anti-helminthic drugs);
Supporting hen harriers (habitat management to improve nesting and foraging habitat);
Measures for the protection of waterbodies and the importance of high-status waterbodies for pearl mussel and other key species.

NPIs or supporting actions will have to be discussed with the participant’s farm advisor first who will apply for approval for the action to commence. This will happen after the habitat assessments are carried out from June to September 2023. Works carried out before approval will not qualify for payment. Working closely with participant farmers and their farm advisors as well as with key stakeholders with specialist knowledge and experience, the ACRES Kerry / West Cork co-operation team is confident we can deliver on our objectives.

Key messages:

There is a maximum payment of €10,500 per year available to farmers participating in the ACRES co-operation project. This is made up of two payments: a results based habitat payment, which is an annual payment based on the habitat quality scores of the land to a maximum of €7,000 and up to €3,500 for carrying out work on the ground called Non-Productive Investments (NPIs) or Landscape Actions (LAs).
The ACRES co-operation (CP) staff will be deciding what scorecards will be used by the farm advisors who will be carrying out ‘habitat assessments’ on private land. The CP staff will be carrying out the habitat assessments on commonages.
All farm advisors will receive training on the use of the scorecards for the results-based habitat assessments from the CP staff. The scorecards to be used include: peatland, grassland, rough grazing, scrub/woodland, chough, coastal grassland and breeding waders. Habitat assessments will be carried out from June to September, by walking over the land.
Farmers willing to complete work on the ground will receive an ‘Annual Works Plan’. When farmers are considering actions/non-productive investments they want to carry out they should speak to their farm advisor and select the actions relevant to specific issues on their farmland to increase their results-based habitat score.
Farmers will receive an Annual Works Plan from the CP Team detailing approved actions they have discussed with their farm advisor. It is important to note that any work carried out before the plan is received will not qualify for payment.
All participant farmers will receive training from the CP team, and the CP team will be in touch with participant farmers in the latter half of 2023.