THE STATE is to spend more than €130,000 this year to halt and reverse the decline in breeding wader birds in the Shannon Callows.
The Department of Arts and Heritage has confirmed that €60,000 of the €134,000 has been earmarked for farmers, with the remaining €74,908 being spent on administration
The Shannon Callows is regarded as one of the most remarkable wetland areas in Ireland – it starts immediately south of Athlone and stretches for 50km as far as Portumna in Co Galway.
The Callows are home to several breeding waders including the curlew, dunlin, lapwing, golden plover, redshank and snipe.
According to the department, the Callows “was first surveyed for breeding waders in 1987, when high-breeding numbers of lapwing, snipe, curlew and redshank were recorded”. A follow-up 2002 survey revealed significant reductions of between 68 per cent and 83 per cent in the breeding numbers of these species.
The department has contracted Birdwatch Ireland to implement the Middle Shannon Breeding Waders grant scheme this year. “Various species of waders breeding in Ireland are now at historically low levels and direct intervention is required to halt and reverse the declines,” a spokesman said.
He pointed out that the Government was bound by the EU birds directive to maintain the populations of wild birds at appropriate levels “and as such Ireland has to take the requisite measures to preserve and maintain sufficient suitable habitat for these species”.
The department states that the agri-environment initiative, the Breeding Wader grant scheme, promotes a style of farming on the callows that would be compatible with the needs of these breeding birds along with targeted predator control, both active and passive.
The department spokesman said that as a result of the scheme and other initiatives, the overall severe decline of breeding waders in the targeted areas had been halted and some of the managed sites had started to show increases.
He added the land management prescriptions required the farmer to destock the target fields during the breeding season – in order that nest success rates were optimised – and to control grazing after the breeding season in order to retain the suitability of the fields for breeding waders for the next year.
As these rules restricted farmers’ activities, a payment scheme had been put in place to ensure an adequate level of uptake.
