2008 Press Releases
Changes in the Uplands
01.10.2008
Land abandonment is a big threat to the ecology of upland areas according to a research group in UCC who have been examining links between upland biodiversity, farming practices and the socio-economic driving forces behind land use change, on the Iveragh Peninsula, Kerry.
01.10.2008
Land abandonment is a big threat to the ecology of upland areas according to a research group in UCC who have been examining links between upland biodiversity, farming practices and the socio-economic driving forces behind land use change, on the Iveragh Peninsula, Kerry.
The Irish uplands are of high cultural, recreational and nature conservation value. Farming and nature have co-evolved in the hills to the extent that today the conservation of the rich biodiversity contained within the internationally important upland heather moorlands and blanket bog habitats requires the continuation of farming systems, especially sustainable grazing and rotational burning. A UCC research project (BioUp) funded by Science Foundation Ireland and coordinated by Dr Eileen O'Rourke, Geography Department, is modelling changes in the tightly coupled social-ecological system prevalent in the Kerry uplands.
The BioUp team have not found evidence for large scale abandonment of the Iveragh uplands, but a change in the traditional farming system is evident. Today the vast majority of the hill farmers are combining full time off farm work with part- time farming. Part-time farming tends to lead to a simplification of the farm management system, resulting in localised over and under grazing. The research highlights the trend towards moving farming down slope, and concentrating the farming system around the reclaimed 'green land', generally positioned around the farm yard, and the less intensive use of the upland rough grazing and commonage. This system may reduce time consuming herding up the mountain, but the reduced grazing of the high uplands has ecological implications. The re-wilding of the uplands as well as the breakdown in the traditional management system makes hill walking more difficult and increases the risk of wild fires, and their danger to nearby settlements and forest plantations.
The current orientation in European agricultural policy is committed on the one hand to corporate driven intensive agriculture that can compete on globalised markets while on the other hand acknowledging the role of 'traditional' agriculture in maintaining the considerable environmental and aesthetic assets of the European countryside, along with its social cohesion. However, today very few hill sheep farmers in disadvantaged areas like the Iveragh can make a viable living solely from farming. Of the eighty Iveragh hill sheep farmers surveyed in this research it was found that only 19% of households, (many of whom had no family), were fully dependent on their farms as their sole source of income.
In terms of the Living Countryside Agenda, that underpins the 1999 CAP reform, rural development and the maintenance of viable rural communities and services, such as, shops, schools, post offices and public transport, is critical. Living communities remain the most important element in the natural heritage. "In European uplands we cannot disassociate the natural from the cultural. As the custodians of the landscape and its traditions from generation to generation, farmers must continue to play a pivotal role in both quality food production and countryside management. They also have to be flexible and adapt to changing times."
This research is funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), under the Research Frontiers Programme. We would also like to acknowledge the contribution of the rest of the 'BioUp' team, Nadine Kramm, Roz Anderson, Mark Emmerson, John O'Halloran, and Nick Chisholm, UCC.
Picture Dr Eileen O’Rourke, Geography, UCC and PhD students Nadine Kramm and Roz Anderson from the Environmental Research Institute, UCC
The BioUp team have not found evidence for large scale abandonment of the Iveragh uplands, but a change in the traditional farming system is evident. Today the vast majority of the hill farmers are combining full time off farm work with part- time farming. Part-time farming tends to lead to a simplification of the farm management system, resulting in localised over and under grazing. The research highlights the trend towards moving farming down slope, and concentrating the farming system around the reclaimed 'green land', generally positioned around the farm yard, and the less intensive use of the upland rough grazing and commonage. This system may reduce time consuming herding up the mountain, but the reduced grazing of the high uplands has ecological implications. The re-wilding of the uplands as well as the breakdown in the traditional management system makes hill walking more difficult and increases the risk of wild fires, and their danger to nearby settlements and forest plantations.
The current orientation in European agricultural policy is committed on the one hand to corporate driven intensive agriculture that can compete on globalised markets while on the other hand acknowledging the role of 'traditional' agriculture in maintaining the considerable environmental and aesthetic assets of the European countryside, along with its social cohesion. However, today very few hill sheep farmers in disadvantaged areas like the Iveragh can make a viable living solely from farming. Of the eighty Iveragh hill sheep farmers surveyed in this research it was found that only 19% of households, (many of whom had no family), were fully dependent on their farms as their sole source of income.
In terms of the Living Countryside Agenda, that underpins the 1999 CAP reform, rural development and the maintenance of viable rural communities and services, such as, shops, schools, post offices and public transport, is critical. Living communities remain the most important element in the natural heritage. "In European uplands we cannot disassociate the natural from the cultural. As the custodians of the landscape and its traditions from generation to generation, farmers must continue to play a pivotal role in both quality food production and countryside management. They also have to be flexible and adapt to changing times."
This research is funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), under the Research Frontiers Programme. We would also like to acknowledge the contribution of the rest of the 'BioUp' team, Nadine Kramm, Roz Anderson, Mark Emmerson, John O'Halloran, and Nick Chisholm, UCC.
Picture Dr Eileen O’Rourke, Geography, UCC and PhD students Nadine Kramm and Roz Anderson from the Environmental Research Institute, UCC