AEOS-Natura scheme details made available
AEOS contracts shall be for at least five years; rented land is not eligible for payment. Completed applications must be submitted no later than May 15, and farmers in the schemes must submit a payment claim annually.
Applicants who have Natura 2000 land, or non-Natura commonage, must choose specific actions, plus other actions determined by their planner. Specific actions are required for blanket bogs, heaths and upland grasslands; sand dune and machair areas; river SACs; wet grasslands, including callows, lowland, fens and marshes; and priority wild bird habitats.
Other applicants must nominate either halting biodiversity decline, maintaining water quality, or combating climate change as their environmental objective. Once an objective is chosen, an appropriate, mandatory action must be selected from the AEOS list, plus at least one complementary action.
AEOS actions come under the headings of new hedgerow establishment; alternative water sources for bovines; arable margins; broad-leaved tree planting; conservation of animal genetic resources (rare breeds); coppicing of hedgerows; grassland habitats; green cover establishment from a sown crop; laying of hedgerows; min-till (minimum tillage); riparian margins; slurry spreading (use of new technologies); species-rich grassland; traditional, dry-stone wall maintenance; traditional Irish orchards; traditional hay meadow; and wild bird cover.
Annual AEOS payment rates per hectare range from €23 for minimum tillage, to €869 for wild bird cover. Payment rates per 100 metres range from €8 for habitats to €800 for hedgerow laying.
Rare breed payments are €200 per livestock unit. Traditional orchards attract funding of €5 per tree, but the capital investment is estimated at €15. Full details are on the www.agriculture.gov.ie website under the Rural Environment and REPS and AEOS headings.
