High nature value farming adds biodiversity to our countryside

Brian Donaldson • Published 12 Jan 2012 13:00 0 Comments

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Extension to environment schemes

TO many people modern day farming means intensive livestock production with large open fields and large farm holdings with huge slurry stores and expansive buildings to accommodate the cattle in winter.

But many parts of Ireland, including Fermanagh, have natural landscapes where farm holdings have largely remained unaltered for generations. While the EU supports payments to farmers perceived by many members of the public as being for highly productive agriculture, in reality, a large allocation of European funding goes towards supporting farmers through agri environment schemes.

Farmers take the view that they are the guardians of the countryside. After all, their livelihoods depend on the resources they use. Many of the most successful farmers work in partnership with high quality environmental schemes and in partnership with wildlife.

One organisation delivering on biodiversity in the countryside is the European Forum on Nature Conservation and Pastoralism, a European wide network raising the awareness of the importance of low intensity farming for nature conservation. One of its aims is to improve the way public policies respond to the needs of these farming systems.

One local man, Patrick McGurn has taken a career break from his normal job within the Countryside Management Branch at DARD in Fermanagh to take up his temporary post on the European Forum.

He says that the maintenance of what is known as High Nature Value farming systems and one of the aims of the EU Common Agricultural Policy raises huge challenges.

He described HNV farmland as being three main types: Farmland with a high proportion of semi-natural vegetation; Farmland dominated by low intensity agriculture or a mosaic of semi-natural and cultivated land and small-scale features and Farmland supporting rare species or a high proportion of European or World populations.

Changes in farming systems over the decades has resulted in losses of wildlife too. Now a number of targeted areas are being identified to preserve the type of farming systems carried on there for generations.

Patrick has been assigned to work with the Aran Islands and Connemara in particular in a study to look at land abandonment and intensification as well as examining the various levels of high nature farming.

Similar schemes are operating across other Member States such as the Scottish Outer Hebrides, Western Balkans, South Wales, Buglaria, Romania and Sweden.

"The land is totally dependent on the way it's farmed and hay meadows is one type of this system," he says, recalling how the Vaughan Trust sponsored a hay meadow competition in Fermanagh during the past summer. Hay meadows support the skylark and corncrakes in many areas and Fermanagh is regarded as one of the last places in Northern Ireland where traditional farming practices are preserved in certain areas. Yields of crops are low but the species of birdlife found are more extensive and Patrick feels this is something that the public would want to see across our landscapes.

One of the areas of the Republic of Ireland which has been regarded a very special place is the Burren. Its limestone pavement is a wonderful landscape but needs a special type of farming system to keep it that way - abandonment of farms altogether would result in encroachment of scrub and too much grazing would destroy the habitats and flora as well.

As well as the Aran Islands and Connemara, Patrick is also examining a region in Co. Kerry.

On the Aran Islands, there could be 300 farmers but some fields are as small as 0.1 hectares and there would be up to 50 fields in a holding.

The two and a half year project for Patrick means he is part of a network across other Member States and each year has the opportunity to visit projects in different countries. Last year he saw high nature value farming in Romania.

He says that while he is working with other parts of Ireland, he can see many similarities with the landscapes found across Fermanagh. He mentions the marsh fritillary butterfly only found in certain parts of the county, the curlew and of course the flora and fauna of species rich grasslands, mainly found in West Fermanagh.

"The right type of farming is important for these landscapes. If you maintain farming systems and habitats, a lot of the species will come back. As a society we must be looking at support measures to farmers to achieve this," he says.

The Forum is the only organisation which regularly brings together farmers, conservationists, policy makers, researchers and Non-Governmental organizations to discuss the issues.

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 12 Jan 12

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