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Project Code [2024-NE-1264]
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Project title
Farming Resilience and Management through Natural Capital
Primary Funding Agency
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Co-Funding Organisation(s)
Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine
Lead Organisation
Dublin City University (DCU)
Lead Applicant
Jimmy O'Keeffe
Project Abstract
Ireland faces numerous threats from climate change and environmental degradation, including biodiversity loss, falling water quality, and property damage due to extreme weather events. These issues are exacerbated by changing land use practices and the intensification of food production from policy and consumer demand. Currently, Ireland is one of the EU’s highest emitters of greenhouse gases per capita, with almost a third of its EU-protected species and 85% of its EU-protected habitats in unfavourable status. This impacts societal functioning and resilience to climate and environmental shocks. Mitigating these impacts has involved public and private sector spending, which places an increasing financial burden on taxpayers. These costs are expected to rise with more extreme climate and societal pressures.
However, Ireland's natural resources can offer solutions. Properly managed land can provide large-scale Nature-based Solutions (NbS) to challenges including carbon sequestration, flood risk, biodiversity enhancement, and water quality. All land provides ecosystem services to varying degrees, and maintaining these benefits is crucial for environmental resilience. Harnessing this capacity requires changes in land use practices while ensuring sustainable food production and respecting landowners' rights to farm. With agricultural land comprising 68% of Ireland’s land area, farmers are central to environmental improvements.
Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) identifies, measures, and tracks natural resource stocks vital for life. NCA involves understanding the extent and condition of key environmental assets and quantifying the flow of ecosystem services. Developing a framework to collect and evaluate farm-scale data is critical for supporting ecosystem service benefits and providing landowners with benefits from their land's services. This project focuses on developing a transferable and adaptable natural capital evaluation framework, including systems for farm-level data collection and ecosystem flow measurement. Specifically, it evaluates agriculture's role in improving soil and water quality, biodiversity, and flood risk outcomes. The project is unique in its whole-farm approach, recognising that this is where decisions are made. Farmers and landowners are central to this approach, ensuring they are fairly supported.
The intensification of agriculture and the increase in large farming units have made many small to medium farms unviable. Despite the growth of large-scale farms, overall farm numbers have decreased over the past decade, with the average holding now at 34.4 ha. This project targets small to medium-sized farmers, placing them at the centre of research to develop an NCA framework. This framework will recognise their role in providing ecosystem services and identify ways to support them.
Developing the framework will require engaging farmers, policymakers, and economists, linking farm-level natural capital evaluation with payments and policy. It will employ high-resolution drone technology, carbon measurement, rapid ecological assessments, and hydrological evaluation. A systems approach will be used, recognising the complexity of human and natural environment interactions and the potential for far-reaching consequences. Three study sites representing small to medium-sized farms will be used, focusing on those that have undertaken or are undertaking ecosystem service improvements.
The project aims to enhance farm-level sustainability through an NCA framework that integrates advanced data collection, robust accounting frameworks, and participatory stakeholder engagement.
Grant Approved
€328,454.36
Research Hub
Protecting and Restoring Our Natural Environment
Research Theme
Supporting the transition to sustainable land use planning and management
Initial Projected Completion Date
28/02/2027