Thursday 3 March 2022

Semi-natural habitats and Ecological Focus Areas on Irish farmland

HIighlights: We surveyed farmland habitats on tillage and more intensive beef and dairy farms. Habitat area was lower than that found in the general countryside, and was dominated by linear features (especially hedgerows). All tillage farms and the majority of pastoral farms in our sample met the current 5% EFA requirement, and the vast majority (93%) met a scenario with a 7% EFA requirement. There is a considerable amount of a broader range of wildlife habitats already present on intensively managed farms that was not included in EFA in Ireland, and is not reflected in policy or legislation. 

Open Access data: landscape classification of Ireland

The FarmForBio project has developed a landscape classification map of the Republic of Ireland. 

The map and the GIS data are now available on Teagasc’s TStor repository https://t-stor.teagasc.ie/handle/11019/2790