Burrenbeo Trust along with partners IT Sligo will play a central role in the establishment of a new knowledge and best practice network which aims to boost innovation in agricultural areas across Europe renowned for their outstanding natural and cultural values.
Burrenbeo have joined forces with the Centre for Environmental Research, Innovation and Sustainability (CERIS) at IT Sligo to launch an international project dealing with High Nature Value Farming, known as HNV Link.
High nature value farmland defines areas across the continent where agricultural activities support and are associated with exceptionally high biodiversity. The project will operate across 11 countries: Ireland, the UK, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, France, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Finland and Sweden.
More than 70% of habitats of European importance in Ireland are impacted by agricultural practices with many of the negative effects relating to the lack of management or land use change. The project will focus on collecting, developing, transferring and sharing innovative solutions of all kinds for supporting high nature value areas. The Burren, recognised internationally as one of the flagship farming landscapes, will be one of ten European learning areas for the project.
While the Burren will be the flagship ‘learning area’ in Ireland for this new project, the goal is to expand the network across the country as the high nature value characteristics apply to almost one third of Ireland’s agricultural landbase.