Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 19 January 2022
457. Deputy Jennifer Whitmore asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the status of the curlew task force recommendations; the funding being made available in 2022 to address the concerning decline of the species; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [63082/21]
View answerThe Curlew is a pressing national conservation concern, having experienced a 96% decline in the breeding population in the last 30 years.
In early 2017, my Department's National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) established a Curlew Task Force. The Task Force adopted a collaborative approach to identify the policies and supports necessary to support breeding Curlew in Ireland. A wide range of stakeholder groups contributed and a series of 26 agreed recommendations was published in 2019. Good progress has been made in terms of some of the recommendations but as is the case with challenging conservation issues, further progress could be made in other areas.
To establish how many pairs of Curlew remain breeding in Ireland and where they are, NPWS has completed two national surveys in recent years, the first of which was published in a journal called Wader Study. The second survey was completed in 2021 and the data is being currently analysed and compiled.
Approximately €10m in funding has been dedicated to on-the-ground measures for Curlew over the past five years, predominantly through GLAS, which is administered by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
In addition to GLAS, the Curlew Conservation Programme, established in 2017 by NPWS, operates across nine geographical areas. These combined efforts have supported overall productivity levels that should sustain a stable population of Curlew. However, in some of the nine areas productivity levels are still below the critical threshold.
For the nine areas over the five years to date, a total of approximately €1.5m has been spent. In 2022, with the continued partnership of the Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine, a budget of €0.5m has been allocated.
The Irish Breeding Curlew European Innovation Partnership operates in two other localities and this is funded by Irish Rural Development Programme, administered by both the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Bird Watch Ireland. The budget for this project is €1.1m.
A Memorandum of Understanding between NPWS and RSPB Northern Ireland was signed in 2021 to progress a feasibility study for curlew headstarting on an all-island basis. This is a necessary step in establishing whether headstarting can be a valuable tool in efforts to reverse the decline in Curlew.
Work by NPWS and UCD is progressing to support the analysis of satellite tracking data for breeding Curlew in Ireland, under a Masters Research Project, to better understand the landscapes that Curlew utilise.
In terms of the CAP Strategic Plan up until 2027, NPWS and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine are proposing to support Curlew and other breeding waders under a dedicated delivery framework, funded by the CAP and the national exchequer. This will include dedicated survey, nest protection and habitat enhancement across the country in various breeding wader hotspots.
