Freshwater Pearl Mussel Conservation Condition and Monitoring Review

Tender description

The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), part of 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. The Department is seeking tenders for the provision of a comprehensive synthesis of 2004-2020 survey data on the critically endangered Freshwater Pearl Mussel to inform future monitoring programmes, conservation measures, and policies and programmes. This project will involve analysis of data from more than 35 populations and over 100 individual reports to reassess population size, distribution and extinction curves, as well as the distribution and condition of suitable juvenile mussel habitat. The final report will make recommendations on priority conservation measures at national level and for individual populations, as well as on general improvements to monitoring methods, data capture and the monitoring programme. The findings will be used by the NPWS to underpin the revision of the National Conservation Strategy on the Freshwater Pearl Mussel. The contract will run from late-May 2020 to November 2021 See RfT document for further information.