project - EIP-AGRI Operational Group
Protecting Farmland Pollinators
Protecting Farmland Pollinators
Objectives
This project aims to develop a flexible mechanism that encourages all farmers to make their farm more pollinator friendly in a way that will not impact on productivity. It will:
-Test the effectiveness of a range of pollinator measures across farmland of different types and identify those that are most cost-effective.
-Examine the impact of these pollinator measures on broader biodiversity.
-Based on the pollinator measures, develop an innovative farm-scale scoring system to quantify how pollinator-friendly the entire farm is as a land parcel.
-Develop a simple results-based payment method that encourages and assists farmers in attempts to improve their overall farm-scale pollinator score.
Objectives
This project aims to develop a flexible mechanism that encourages all farmers to make their farm more pollinator friendly in a way that will not impact on productivity. It will:
-Test the effectiveness of a range of pollinator measures across farmland of different types and identify those that are most cost-effective.
-Examine the impact of these pollinator measures on broader biodiversity.
-Based on the pollinator measures, develop an innovative farm-scale scoring system to quantify how pollinator-friendly the entire farm is as a land parcel.
-Develop a simple results-based payment method that encourages and assists farmers in attempts to improve their overall farm-scale pollinator score.
Activities
-Assess all participating farms for existing pollinator habitat and determine an initial baseline farm-scale pollinator score (year 1).
-Fully monitor all participating farms for pollinators and broader biodiversity (year 2).
- Score all participating farms annually and explain to farmers what simple actions they can take to improve their score. Farmers will be paid annually depending on their score and the amount and quality of habitat they create (Years 2-5).
-Fully monitor all participating farms again for pollinators and biodiversity (year 4).
-Full critical review and future recommendations (year 5).
Activities
-Assess all participating farms for existing pollinator habitat and determine an initial baseline farm-scale pollinator score (year 1).
-Fully monitor all participating farms for pollinators and broader biodiversity (year 2).
- Score all participating farms annually and explain to farmers what simple actions they can take to improve their score. Farmers will be paid annually depending on their score and the amount and quality of habitat they create (Years 2-5).
-Fully monitor all participating farms again for pollinators and biodiversity (year 4).
-Full critical review and future recommendations (year 5).
Additional information
-Identification of pollinator conservation measures that have the most impact and that are most cost-effective in the Irish farmed landscape.
-Development of a robust and scientifically rigorous farm-scale scoring system that accurately assesses how pollinator-friendly a farm is regardless of type, location or intensity level. It will be linked to simple guidelines on how to improve that score, so that progress can be easily measured and that all farms can become more pollinator-friendly over time.
-Demonstration of this new and innovative approach to nature conservation on farmland working across a range of farm types under a new payment structure that is results-based but that has a low administrative burden.
-Roll out of a scheme that helps farmers better understand and engage with nature on their land and creates a measurable system for improving biodiversity on the farm that is accessible to all and that could be rolled out on a wide-scale.
-Provision of a clear body of Irish evidence for future consideration within biodiversity measures in agri-environment schemes.
-Provision of a novel mechanism that would allow threshold scoring levels to be set, thus offering an evidence-based and measurable target for biodiversity sustainability accreditation schemes (e.g., Origin Green).
Project details
- Main funding source
- Rural development 2014-2020 for Operational Groups
- Rural Development Programme
- 2014IE06RDNP001 Ireland - Rural Development Programme (National)
Emplacement
- Main geographical location
- Mid-East
€ 1194679
Total budget
Total contributions from EAFRD, national co-financing, additional national financing and other financing.
Ressources
1 Practice Abstracts
Pollinators are important to farmers who grow pollinator dependent crops, to those who want to grow their own fruits and vegetables and for the health of our environment. Farmland has experienced wide-scale loss of wild pollinators over the last fifty years however. In Ireland, one third of our 99 bee species are threatened with extinction. To address this issue, the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan (AIPP) was published in 2015. For the AIPP to be successful, it requires small changes to how we manage the entire landscape to ensure it is a place where bees and other insects can survive and thrive. Farmers are at the heart of the solution, and it is imperative that realistic mechanisms are developed that will encourage and support farmers in protecting farmland pollinators.
This project will test pollinator measures in the Irish context and use these to develop an innovative and scientifically rigorous farm-scale scoring system that uses a habitat-matrix approach to quantity how pollinator-friendly the entire farm is as a land parcel. This would enable all farmers to understand how pollinator-friendly or not their farm currently is, what simple, low-cost actions they can take to change this, and to work towards improving their whole farm for pollinators and other biodiversity in a measurable way that does not impact on productivity.
Pollinators are important to farmers who grow pollinator dependent crops, to those who want to grow their own fruits and vegetables and for the health of our environment. Farmland has experienced wide-scale loss of wild pollinators over the last fifty years however. In Ireland, one third of our 99 bee species are threatened with extinction. To address this issue, the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan (AIPP) was published in 2015. For the AIPP to be successful, it requires small changes to how we manage the entire landscape to ensure it is a place where bees and other insects can survive and thrive. Farmers are at the heart of the solution, and it is imperative that realistic mechanisms are developed that will encourage and support farmers in protecting farmland pollinators.
This project will test pollinator measures in the Irish context and use these to develop an innovative and scientifically rigorous farm-scale scoring system that uses a habitat-matrix approach to quantity how pollinator-friendly the entire farm is as a land parcel. This would enable all farmers to understand how pollinator-friendly or not their farm currently is, what simple, low-cost actions they can take to change this, and to work towards improving their whole farm for pollinators and other biodiversity in a measurable way that does not impact on productivity.
Contacts
Project coordinator
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Dr Úna FitzPatrick
Project coordinator
Project partners
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Andrew Mullins
Project partner
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Audrey O’Shea
Project partner
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Catherine Keena
Project partner
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Denis Dunne
Project partner
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Jane Stout
Project partner
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Liam Lysaght
Project partner