A new European Innovation Partnerships (EIP) project dubbed “FarmPEAT” – aimed at improving the environmental quality of agricultural lands surrounding raised bogs – has been launched in the midlands today (Thursday, July 29).

Launched by Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Senator Pippa Hackett, the project is developing a locally-led, innovative, results-based farm scheme for farmers who manage lands that surround some of Ireland’s finest remaining raised bogs.

The launch took place in Clara, Co. Offaly, this morning and is the latest in series of EIP projects funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) under Ireland’s Rural Development Programme (RDP) 2014-2020.

In total, the department has committed €64 million to these EIP projects over the lifetime of the RDP.

Speaking at the launch Minister Hackett said: “Raised bogs represent one of the most valuable natural ecosystems in Ireland and the appropriate management of adjacent agricultural lands that surround them can play an important role in maintaining and enhancing their long-term conservation value.’

“The project will work with local farmers to design and trial a programme especially adapted to the local landscape.

“It will reward farmers for improved management of habitats on peat soils along with other important landscape features such as eskers, field boundaries and watercourses.

“All of that will, I believe, combine to deliver enhanced environmental outcomes,” the minister said.

Caroline Lalor, FarmPEAT project manager, added: “We are delighted with the interest that local farmers have expressed in the Project.

“We are offering 42 farmers a contract for the first year and are planning to offer additional places next year.”

According to the department, the new locally-led programme “brings together farmers, farm advisors, scientists, and researchers to deliver a targeted landscape level intervention which places the farmer at the heart of the process”.

The programme will be results-based in that farmers will get paid based on the scores they achieve, with higher scores, indicating higher environmental quality, securing higher payments.

It is hoped that this programme will form a basis for future agri-environmental schemes in these areas.

As such, it presents an opportunity for farmers to be involved in developing policy that could provide long-term environmental and economic benefits to their communities into the future.

The FarmPEAT Project is funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, has a budget of €1.2 million and will run for two years. The programme is being run by the Project Team, which is based in Moate, Co. Westmeath.

The sites are located in the Irish midland counties of Roscommon, Offaly, Kildare and Westmeath. The sites were selected in order to represent the geographic spread of raised bogs in the midlands and also, at some of the sites, to allow for the FarmPEAT Project to support already completed restoration work and research conducted on the high bogs themselves.

In addition, it was important when selecting the sites to choose raised bog sites that have a significant proportion of agricultural land surrounding them.

Thanking those involved Minister Hackett concluded: “As we strive to reach challenging climate change targets, the work planned here will help Ireland transition towards more sustainable use of our peatlands.”