Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has commended farmers across Ireland for their efforts to protect water bodies, improve water quality, enhance habitats and reduce agricultural emissions.
Minister McConalogue spoke about the “long-term benefits” of work being done by farmers as part of the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES).
“As well as taking actions to protect water courses, for example, landowners have also committed to planting more than 2,000 kilometres of hedgerows and approximately 580,000 native trees.
“This illustrates some of the hugely positive contributions being made by farmers to the country’s environmental sustainability,” Minister McConalogue said.
McConalogue
The minister listed some of the “extensive” work being carried out, such as: Helping to conserve breeding waders; Maintaining and developing coastal habitats such as dunes and saltmarshes; and supporting rough grazing to benefit hen harriers, barn owls and small birds and mammals.
He also referred to more than 10,000km of traditional dry stonewalls maintained by farmers, the installation of tens of thousands of owl, bird and bat boxes, and the rejuvenation of more than 1,400kms of hedges.
Farmers have also committed to a series of actions to control invasive species, improve grazing practices, delay mowing and grazing to protect ground-nesting birds and change vegetation on land.
The minister thanked the 54,000 ACRES participants for their commitment to “putting the environment at the core of Irish farming”.
“It is particularly encouraging to see strong interest in taking further environmental actions which complement these already extensive efforts, including further tree planting and establishment of additional hedges through the scheme’s Non-Productive Investments programme,” Minister McConalogue said.
The minister acknowledged “challenges” associated with the scale and administration of some elements of the scheme, and said that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) are working to ensure remaining issues are resolved early in the new year.