This article is from page 12 of the 2013-12-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
THE Burren Farming for Conservation Programme (BFCP) has launched an ambitious new bid to grow the amount spent on conservation farms in Clare to € 6 million in 2015.
The Carron-based group confirmed yesterday that € 1.1 million of extra Department of Agriculture money has been paid to the 160 Burren farmers who took part in the BFCP in 2013. In addition to this, the farmers themselves invested matching funds of more than € 330,000 on the project so far this year.
This € 1.4 million is a massive economic boost for the North Clare economy with the vast majority of the money being spent on local services and direct labour. The BFCP currently has a large waiting list of farmers who wish to take part in the project but require funding to roll out the project across the 600 plus farmers in the Burren.
The project aims to bring farming and conservation together by paying farmers to engage in Burren-friendly farm practices. These include cutting path threw scrub to allow better cattle management and allow the cattle to graze on the hazel saplings which have invaded large tracts of limestone pavement.
“The big problem with the scheme is the 400 or 500 other farmers who should be part of the scheme but are not. We would really love to have them involved but we need funding for that to be made available to allow us to do that,” said Brendan Dunford of the BFCP.
“We are campaigning to expand the project by a factor of four – so that means quadrupling the budget and getting 650 farmers in from 2015 onwards. This is a big ask and a big struggle but that is what we are trying to do because we feel really strongly that this delivers a great result for the Burren while also delivering great value.
“What we need to do is for the farmers to continue to carry out the work to a really high standard and it is really important that we are able to prove that this project works – both environmentally and financially. That is out job as the project team and we have the data to prove that this is the best value scheme in Ireland,” he added.
EU funding is available for agri-environmental under the Rural Development Programme and it is hoped that, given the success of the BFCP, the Department of Agriculture will be able to access these funds.