Introduction and Summary of Recommendations

Introduction

This report is based on a study which was commissioned by the Heritage Council and carried out from November 1997 to February 1998. The study brief was to examine the impact of agriculture schemes and payments on aspects of Ireland's heritage, with the emphasis on the natural environment. The study examined the environmental impacts of all the relevant current agriculture schemes and payments, and anticipated the effects that future schemes and payments may have. The draft report was completed in February 1998, prior to the announcement of the detailed agenda 2000 proposals for further reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and proposed planned rural development measures (announced in March 1998). In May 1998, the Heritage Council requested the consultants to update the final report in light of the Agenda 2000 detailed proposals.

In carrying out the survey, the consultants bore in mind the importance of agriculture to the rural economy, its role in maintaining rural populations, and its historical importance in shaping the natural environment. The maintenance of farmers on the land is recognised as a prerequisite for the maintenance of agricultural ecosystems and landscapes. For this reason, the consultants bore in mind the socio-economic role that schemes and payments play in rural areas.

Readers may note the absence of a detailed analysis of the impact of forestry schemes and payments. This is because the Heritage Council commissioned a separate report 'The Impact of Current Forestry Policy on Aspects of Ireland's Heritage' (finalised in May 1998). Nevertheless, the consultants have emphasised that forestry schemes and payments have had, and continue to have, a considerable impact on the natural environment (see Chapter 8.1.8). The report is restricted to the examination of current agriculture schemes and payments, but reference is made to wider agricultural policy where necessary.

The report is divided into ten chapters. Chapter 1 sets out the overall policy framework within which schemes and payments operate, while chapter 2 describes these schemes and payments. Chapter 3 outlines the state of agriculture, and Chapter 4 reviews the current information on the impacts of agriculture on biodiversity. Chapter 5 summarises seven cases studies illustrating the impact of agriculture on the environment, with emphasis on the part played by agriculture schemes and payments. Chapter 6 looks at examples of agri-environmental initiatives in other European countries, as a benchmark against which the performance of Irish agri-environmental schemes might be assessed. Chapter 7 reviews some relevant socio-economic information and summarises the results of a specially commissioned study by the Economic and Social Research Institute. Chapter 8 evaluates the impact of selected agriculture schemes and payments on the natural environment. Chapter 9 anticipates the impacts that the next round of CAP reforms may have on farming and the environment. Lastly, Chapter 10 sets out the recommendations made by the consultants.

Summary of Recommendations

General measures to harmonise agriculture schemes and payments with the natural environment

• We suggest that decoupling all CAP compensatory payments partially or wholly from production should become a general principle. However, a move to area-based payments should not be regarded as a panacea.
• Related to the above, the best way of ensuring that payments do not encourage environmental damage is by giving positive incentives to farmers to manage their land in line with environmental objectives and phasing out incentives that encourage damage.

Sheep payments

• The environmental cross-compliance measures for degraded commonages should be extended to include sand dune systems and machairs currently threatened by overgrazing.

Beef payments

• The rules governing the calculation of forage area need to be tightened, and expected area payments under Agenda 2000 could be focussed on low intensity farming systems such as the Burren, Shannon callows and coastal grasslands.

Arable payments

• Environmental standards should be introduced for tillage farmers through the introduction of a mandatory code of good environmental practice.
• Existing unimproved grassland and other areas of conservation value should be excluded form eligibility for cereal aid payments.

Rural Environmental Protection Scheme (REPS)

• REPS planers should be required to identify the habitat value of all areas on the farm.
• REPS planners should be required to mark all habitats on a field-by-field basis on the farm map which should be entered on a computerised database.
• Nominated environmentalists should have a greater involvement in the REPS planning process.
• REPS should have a larger section for habitat management.
• Ecological experts should be employed by the Department of Agriculture and Food to monitor the environmental quality of REPS planning and offer advice to REPS planners.
• Ecological monitoring of a representative number of REPS farms should be undertaken to assess the effectiveness of the scheme. There should be regular evaluation to ensure that any weaknesses are identified and addressed.
• The new round of REPS must begin with a baseline study of each farm, on a field-by-field basis, to be undertaken when each farm first enters the scheme.
• The new round of REPS should include measures to encourage the cultivation of threatened native crop varieties and landraces .
• The new REPS should have provision for environmental enhancement measures as well as maintenance.
• The entry conditions of the new REPS should not be relaxed for more intensive farmers.
• The focus of the REPS on less intensive, small and medium farmers should remain.

Early Retirement from Farming Scheme (ERS)

• There should be an incentive built into the ERS for environmental enhancement, which should benefit the transferee.

Afforestation and Premium Scheme

• Habitat surveys undertaken by qualified ecologists should be a requirement for land released from a REPS plan to forestry under the Afforestation and Premium Scheme.

A proposed new Farm Habitat Management Scheme

• We recommend that a new scheme - the Farm Habitat Management Scheme should be introduced to provide an incentive for management, restoration and creation of habitats on those farms which are unsuited to participation in the REPS, or where farmers do not wish to join the REPS.
• Each farm applying to join the scheme would have a habitat survey, and only those farms which have the most to offer in terms of existing habitats and potential for habitat restoration and creation would be eligible.
• Nutrient management planning and adherence to a Code of Good Agricultural Practice on the whole farm would be required.
• Environmental experts play a central role in the operation of the proposed scheme to ensure appropriate environmental management is followed.
• The proposed scheme could be part-funded by the EU Structural Funds and national funds.

Measures to reduce water pollution from agriculture

• Nutrient management planning should apply to all farms.
• The Department of Environment and Local Government should issue planning guidelines to local authorities for intensive agricultural enterprises.
• Pig numbers should be capped, and preferably reduced, in catchments already suffering form eutrophication. A similar approach should be made for the mushroom and poultry sector in affected water catchments.
• A centralised waste processing facility, which was already proposed for Monaghan, should now be put in place in Cavan and Monaghan to avoid further environmental damage.
• Pollution risk assessments should be carried out for all intensive farms, including the larger dairy farms, as in Northern Ireland.
• A catchment management planning approach, such as in Lough Ree and Lough Derg, should become accepted practice throughout the country.
• If the Control of Farmyard Pollution Scheme is to be re-introduced, it must be strongly linked with Nutrient Management Planning and whole farm management.

The Burren

• Co-operation between government departments as well as an open information policy are of utmost importance in ensuring the success of agri-environmental schemes in the Burren.
• A menu-type approach to the supplementary measures of the REPS may ensure a wider range of objectives to be achieved.
• Co-operation of agriculturalists and environmentalists in the drawing up of agri-environmental plans should be enforced.
• The decoupling of compensatory payments from production could have a positive influence in the environmental quality in the region.

Erne Catchment Management Scheme

• Farms in sensitive catchments should be subject to comprehensive pollution risk assessments. Farmers could also be required to undertake Nutrient Management Planning (NMP) in sensitive catchments as part of a strategy to improve water quality.

Corncrake Conservation Scheme

• The Corncrake Conservation Scheme should continue until there is confidence that the REPS can achieve the same results.

Proposed changes under Agenda 2000

• The Irish government will be required to link direct payments to environmental conditions. The Heritage Council has the opportunity to make an input into the negotiations currently taking place on CAP reform under Agenda 2000 on the specific environmental conditions for each agriculture payment scheme.