Turbary GIS Review Blanket bog SACs 2023 0405_SABB23

Tender description

This RFT is for a desk study to update GIS data, and a number of related tasks as outlined below, on the scale and impact levels of peat-cutting in blanket bog SACs designated to protect blanket bog and associated habitats, in Ireland. This work will inform regulatory system for peat extraction on blanket bogs in such sites. 1.2 Background and Summary of Requirements Increased knowledge on the rate of loss and damage to rare and threatened habitats and species is reflected in legislation to protect these natural resources in particular the EU Habitats, Birds and EIA Directives and the Wildlife Acts (1976) and Amendments (2000). One of these habitats is blanket bog which, according to the survey of Hammond (1979), once covered an estimated 773,860 ha in Ireland and despite, large scale losses, is still our most extensive peatland habitat. Ireland also has particular responsibility for blanket bog as it holds (along with Scotland, Norway and NW Spain) a significant proportion of the global resource and the largest remaining resource of, Atlantic blanket bog, a hyper-oceanic bog type. Ireland is also now the only EU country with lowland blanket bog habitat. Under the EU Habitats Directive 55 Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) have been designated as SAC for the protection of blanket bog. These include Atlantic blanket bogs on lowlands along the western seaboard and more widely distributed upland blanket bogs. Several of these SACs (see Tables 1 & 2)) are extensive and comprise a mosaic of other Annex I habitats such as heaths, grasslands and aquatic habitats (and species) that also require protection. The Habitats Directive requires that Ireland undertake surveillance of Annex habitats and species and to report to the EU Commission regularly on their conservation status. This involves assessing changes in extent, quality or intensity of pressures on these habitats since the previous assessments of 2019 (NPWS, 2019) for the next report required by the Commission in 2025. Blanket bog in its active state is acc