Pearl mussel project will bring €3.8m to Kerry
A new project aimed at conserving the mussel in the Caragh and Blackwater river catchments has been approved by the EU.
The Kerry LIFE+ project will be worth some €3.8 million to the region over five years, and will involve the creation of four or five jobs in a project office.
Led by the Department of Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht with South Kerry Development Partnership (SKDP) taking a leading role in working with farmers, the project will also involve Coillte, Teagasc, the Department of Agriculture and the Forest Service.
SKDP’s agriculture manager Joseph McCrohan said the project developed through SKDP’s agricultural working group, following research undertaken in the region by UCC’s Dr Eileen O’Rourke with 80 farmers that resulted in the Farming in the Iveragh Uplands report. He said that 45% of the funding will go to family farms in the areas concerned, to carry out work on their farms aimed at improving nutrient management and protecting the water quality on their land.
Agricultural working group chairman Pat O’Driscoll said farmers involved will have a direct say on how the project will operate on their farms. “There is both a research and demonstration element involved in this project which will greatly benefit the farm-ers in the area in their work,” he said.
A major public awareness campaign will be rolled out through local schools and the wider community to highlight the importance of the project for the region.
Meanwhile, about €4m has also been granted to the Raptor LIFE project run by IRD Duhallow Ltd in Co Cork, to restore hen harrier populations and enhance habitats for a range of bird species.
This will be done by restoring habitat across a range of land use types through integrated actions focusing on the Mullaghareirk Mountains, West Limerick Hills, Mount Eagle, the Blackwater River Natura 2000 network sites, and Barna bog.
The project aims to restore the population of the hen harrier which has gone into terminal decline in recent decades.
LIFE+ is the European financial instrument for the environment, with a budget of € €3.4 billion for 2014-2020.
