Recently we interviews Lorcan O’Shea from the REPS Section of the Department of Agriculture, Food & Fisheries. Here is what he had to say.

This article is the third in a series of articles on REPS: An Introductions to REPS, Farming in REPS, REPS 4: A Planners View and REPS: An Overview

REPS is an EU initiative, and it was based on the first regulation (agri environment programme) which was put in place in 1992. The objective of the programme was to respect the environment and bring about change in farming practices. At the time a lot of biodiversity was being lost in the country side across Europe and the EU commission believed the public interest needed to be served and set about getting farmers to make a more conscious effort in relation to the environment. “Things were getting a bit too intensive and the environment was starting to suffer as a result.  It became necessary to try and create a balance to prevent a mono culture of a landscape evolving” says Lorcan. To bring back a balance between environmental objectives and farming practices, there are numerous objectives at a European level, -the habitat directive, -the birds directive, -the protection of habitats, -the protection of species birds, which in turn requires that certain types of landscapes be maintained. “The landscape and the natural habitats have a direct impact on the biodiversity that survives on the land” says Lorcan.

The EU commission set about getting the balance by setting up a programming period and a set of regulations to be complied with. The EU then allocated funding which was available to the various EU member states to implement the regulations for the period. The first programming period ran from 1994 to 2000, the next one ran from 2000 to 2007, and the current programme period will run from 2007 to 2013.

REPS 1

The first REP scheme in Ireland got up and running in 1994, this scheme ran from 1994 up to 2000. “Ireland at the time had a wide biodiversity with a large amount of hedge rows and walls etc per Ha still intact. This is in comparison to our European counterparts who would have had much larger fields and more open landscape with little or no field boundaries and as a result very limited habitat” says Lorcan.

For this reason the first REPS in Ireland was aimed at arresting any further loss to habitats and field margins and maintaining what we had. Farmers were restricted in what they could do, e.g. they couldn’t intensify or take out field boundaries. When the scheme was set up the level of work required for farmers to comply with the scheme was costed and this was reflected in the payment to the farmer.

Education

“There has always been an education module in REPS and farmers have to attend a course to become familiar with the working of the scheme. The education allows farmers to be brought up to speed and it showed farmers how to manage the change in farming practice slowly. The more education and the more experience they have of farming in REPS the more they realise the influence their decisions have on the environment,” says Lorcan

REPS 2

REPS 2 was more or less similar to REPS 1 and was aimed at bringing the numbers partaking in the scheme up. “By increasing the number of farmers in the scheme, the bigger the effect the scheme can have on the environment,” says Lorcan.

REPS3

“By the time REPS 3 was introduced the basic message of REPS and the understanding of the scheme was well established. Farmers were well aware of the scheme and there was also a general awareness of the scheme among the public,” says Lorcan.  Also around the same time as REPS3 was introduced the single payment scheme had come into being and this in its self put certain obligations on the farmer in relation to protecting the environment. This meant that certain directives which were previously part of REPS had now been incorporated into the single farm payment. “So the REPS scheme was altered with the introduction of the proactive biodiversity options, which meant that farmers had to take a more active role in improving, rather than simply retaining habitats and the environment”. In practical terms this meant the farmer had to introduce more biodiversity onto their farms whether by planting more trees on the farm, creating new habitats for wildlife, allowing wider field margins or creating nature runs.

Intensive Farming

Up to now, the more intensive farmer was excluded from the scheme, but with the introduction reps 4 they are free to join. The reason they were excluded previously was because 170kg/ha of nitrogen was the limit which was set in the Nitrates Directive. Ireland at the time was tardy in implementing the Nitrates Directive, we were 16 years late implementing it. As the REPS programme has to be approved by the EU, Ireland couldn’t go to the commission to get approval for a scheme which was in breach of another directive therefore anyone above 170kg/ha was excluded. But when REPS 4 was drawn up we could accommodate everyone as Ireland had at this stage implemented the nitrates directive, we have put in place an SI which allows people to apply for a derogation if they are over 170kg/ha at farm level. So anyone with derogation can now join REPS as they are complying with the Nitrates Directive.

Environmental Influence of REPS

“Evaluation’s of the scheme have been carried out and they have shown that the scheme has increased the farmer’s awareness of the influence of their actions on the environment” says Lorcan, “It has increased the biodiversity but this obviously takes time to measure and to see”.  There has been positive feedback from the experts that the creation of new hedgerows and field margins has had a beneficial effect. “We do intend to have more detailed research results by the middle to the end of the current scheme, obviously a visual environmental effect will be more long term in coming, it takes time for environment to recover and expand” said Lorcan.

Government policy

REPS is part of the Rural Development Plan which forms part of the National Development Plan. It is part of the governments overall strategy on the environment. REPS feeds into other directives such as the birds directive, water framework directive and habitat directive for Natura 2000 which come in under the Dept of the Environment, REPS obviously forms a part in achieving these directives. “REPS makes a positive contribution to water quality due to the restrictions on spreading fertilizer and slurry in or around water courses” says Lorcan.  These directives are the priority issues within the EU and REPS makes a positive influence in achieving these directives.

Who Pays

The scheme is co-financed by the EU commission REPS 4 is paid 55% by the EU 45% by the Irish Exchequer. The previous schemes were funded 75% to 25%, so REPS 4 is more costly to the Irish Exchequer. “There is a budgetary allocation for this year and this will probably suffice, however as the closing date for new applications this year is the 15^th May we will not know what the level of uptake from farmers is, as it is not possible to predict exactly how many will apply before that date” says Lorcan.

The current scheme will run to 2013 which is the current programming period. In 2013 the governing regulation will expire so everything will end with it. Existing contracts will obviously run to their finality, but no new contractors can be brought in after this date. If a new scheme is to be put in place at this time then it will have to be drawn up and reconstituted again at EU level.

How REPS is drawn up.

The EU regulation sets out the rules which need to be abided by to comply with the scheme; this is obviously at a macro level.  Then at a micro level every member state can draw up a scheme which suits its own particular requirements once it remains within the parameters set by the regulations. “They must be related to agri environment as far the regulation set outs the requirements which must be fulfilled and complied with and the type of actions which can be supported by the scheme. The broad template with the member states requirement are then submitted to the commission to be checked for correctness against the regulatory requirements” says Lorcan. The scheme also has to be costed at this stage. There is a wide range of consolation before each scheme is developed and submitted to the commission for approval. “There is a wide range of views put forward by various stake holders, and we can’t include everyone’s views but we have to come to a consensus which takes the best of each of the view points and yet will be acceptable to the EU commission” says Lorcan.

Future

According to Lorcan climate change will be the next big thing, with governments now making contributions towards the restriction of climate change. “This is the way it evolves, whatever the environmental purgative of the day will then be dictated by the foreign policy makers in the EU as to what the regulatory requirements of members states is” says Lorcan. I can envisage future REPS schemes if put in place having a strong climate change influence.