Contract Award. Provision of a Pilot Woodland Bat Survey

Tender description

The Contract has now been awarded to Bat Conservation Ireland. All bat species are protected under Irish and EU law. The EU Habitats Directive [92/43/EEC] further requires all Member States to undertake surveillance of annexed species [see Article 11] and to report regularly on their conservation status [see Article 17]. DAHG is committed to implementing a robust national monitoring programme for all bat species. To that end the Irish Bat Monitoring Programme has been established bringing together four separate monitoring schemes. These monitoring schemes provide data on 7 of the 9 bat species which occur in Ireland. The remaining two species – whiskered bat, Myotis mystacinus and natterer’s bat, M. nattereri – are considered to be widely dispersed but uncommon and have to date proven too difficult to detect in sufficient numbers to allow any assessment of population trend. This reflects, to some extent, the difficulties involved in trying to survey these animals in structurally complex habitats using existing methods. Refer to rft.