Ireland’s Burren region is currently threatened by agricultural overexploitation. As a result of the intensification of agriculture, the region has seen a significant deterioration in its environment, with a marked decline in the quality of its water and its flora and fauna. The fault lies with an agricultural policy that is less and less respectful of the environment, and with the stranglehold on Irish farmers, who are finding it increasingly difficult to make a living from their ancestral working methods.
The Burren is a particularly popular region for tourists, with its archaeological remains and surprising landscapes. Renowned for its biodiversity, the Burren has always been a place of choice, but is now experiencing a perceptible decline in environmental preservation.
The Irish government, with the help of Europe, has therefore set up Burren Life, a research program launched in 2005 to find alternatives for reconciling agriculture and respect for the environment. To test these solutions, 120 farmers agreed to take part in the Burren Farming for Conservation Program, a 3-year project financed by unused European funds.
Worth 3 million euros, this project allocates 15,000 euros per farmer per year, enabling them to invest in environmentally-friendly equipment, and set up cooperatives and other collective organizations to promote their activity. The results so far seem positive: the purchasing power of the farmers taking part in the operation has improved significantly, and the Burren seems less degraded than before by human activity…
All that’s left now is to make sure that this project can be extended to more participants, to get the farmers out of their predicament, and save this magnificent region that is the Burren…
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