Tender for Contract for Provision of Services for LIFE On Machair Project Officer for Donegal

Tender description

Provision of Services for LIFE On Machair Project Officer for Donegal, to support delivery of project actions including the LIFE on Machair Restoration Programme; associated workshops and restoration interventions; and community engagement for the LIFE On Machair project Donegal sites. LIFE on Machair Project Sites included in services for LIFE On Machair Project Officer for Donegal: • Lurgabrack, Rinclevan and Pollaguill (part of Horn Head and Rinclevan SAC and overlaps with Horn Head to Fanad Head SPA) and • Magheragallon (Machair an Gathlain) and Lunniagh (Gweedore Bay and Islands SAC and overlaps with West Donegal Islands SPA). Context: The LIFE On Machair project aims to protect and restore machair systems inside the Natura 2000 network in Ireland (SAC’s/SPA’s), with a particular focus on machair habitat, breeding waders and pollinators. Machair is a coastal habitat characterised by a plain of lime-rich, wind-blown sand that is unique to the north and west of Ireland and Scotland. The typical flower-rich vegetation of machair is traditionally maintained through low-intensity livestock grazing. The machair habitat is part of a coastal complex which includes wet and dry machair, drift line vegetation, embryonic, mobile and fixed dunes, lakes and transitional habitats linking the coast to its hinterland. Post-Brexit, the entire EU land cover of *21A0 Machairs occurs in Ireland. The habitat occupies c. 30km2 nationally and was assessed as Amber in Ireland’s 2019 Habitats Directive reporting and thus Amber in the EU. Evidence not captured in the 2019 assessment indicates the habitat has experienced degradation since 2013, when it was assessed as Red, based on a larger sample size. Additionally, machair forms a complex with the priority Annex I habitat *2130 Fixed dunes which was assessed as Red in 2019. This project targets sites which have never achieved Green status for either of these habitats.