A Pilot Farm Environmental Study Programme

Tender description

The objective of The Farm Environmental Study (FES) Programme is to develop a national baseline database of farm scale habitat and biodiversity data along with additional environmental parameters. The programme will focus on • A data collating exercise bringing together existing national databases on habitats and biodiversity in order to produce an individual farm level data inventory and map • A farm level survey of habitats both agriculturally productive and semi-natural in order to establish proportion cover at the farm scale • The condition of selected semi-natural habitats in relation to biodiversity value The FES will generate a database of habitat and biodiversity data at the farm level. A combination of a desk-based data collation exercise in combination with a targeted farm survey will be used to identify areas of productive land, marginal or extensively managed land, semi-natural habitats, and other areas of biodiversity potential at the farm scale. End use will be a GIS platform where the standard national datasets (e.g. NATURA 2000, EPA Watercourses, EPA Pollution impact Potential Maps, Teagasc Soils,), and data gathered from FES will be available as layers to allow for interrogation of environmental data. The database will provide the scope for a comprehensive analysis of farm habitat and biodiversity and a baseline for future targeting of agri-environmental schemes and measures. The successful tenderer will act as coordinator responsible for development, design and rollout of a pilot FES survey which will form the preparation phase for the national roll out of FES. The successful tenderer will be responsible for the monitoring, controlling and evaluating the project on an on-going basis. The pilot will consist of 4 phases: 1. Advisor training 2. Farm habitat survey 3. GIS database preparation 4. Advisor to Farmer knowledge exchange The successful tenderer must design, develop and cost appropriate interventions to carry out these four phases.