Hard Water Lake Monitoring to Inform Article 17

Tender description

The Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (DCHG) provides the legislative and policy framework for the conservation of nature and biodiversity in the Republic of Ireland. It also oversees its implementation, based on good science, with particular emphasis on the protection of habitats and species. Hard oligo-mesotrophic waters with benthic vegetation of Chara spp (habitat code 3140) is a habitat on Annex I of the Habitats Directive. Diverse, oligotrophic, hard water lake habitat vegetation is uncommon in the EU, and some of the best examples occur in Ireland. The habitat is under significant pressure in Ireland from eutrophication; and was reported as unfavourable-bad in 2007 (NPWS, 2007) and unfavourable-bad declining in 2013 (NPWS, 2013). Ireland identified the improvement of the habitat’s conservation status as a strategic conservation priority under the Prioritised Action Framework (PAF) 2014-2020 (https://www.npws.ie/sites/default/files/general/PAF-IE-2014.pdf). Habitat 3140 has also been prioritised under the draft River Basin Management Plan 2018-2021 (DHPCLG, 2017). The purpose of this request for tender is to procure monitoring of the hard water lake habitat in 10 lakes in 2018 to inform the national conservation status assessment for the period 2013 to 2018 inclusive; as well as to produce an Irish Wildlife Manual of the field survey and conservation condition assessment methods used. The detailed specification of the project tasks and the expected deliverables are set out in Sections 2 and 3 below. The project will run from May 2018 to May 2019, with reports on the conservation condition of the 10 lakes delivered in or before October 2018 Refer to RfT