Information exchange for REPS (Rural Environment Protection Scheme) Planners (Republic of Ireland)

[Ute Bohnsack <sustag AT eircom.net>]

Dear Conor,
just a very brief answer for now.
There is a mailing list called RESECON (Land & Resource Economics
Network) hosted in the US but with international membership. You may get
some answers to your question on impact assessment there.
I don't have the subscription details to hand but it'll be easy to find
using a search engine.
Also I remember the OECD has done work on effects of air-borne emissions
and water pollution on agricultural soils. (check on www.oecd.org) One
rather old source I'm aware of is OECD (1989): Agricultural and
Environmental Policies - Opportunities for Integration. Paris. 200 pp.
Check "Environmental Indicators for Agriculture", also by the OECD,
perhaps there are some pointers in there. You should be able to see
Table of Contents on their website.

As to your second question - I see your difficulty. It'll probably be
years still before LPIS, FIPS etc will be in the public domain. Even all
the information collected on REPS farms is not publicly available. And
having done paperwork with and for farmers leaves me with a healthy
distrust of farming statistics.
For soil data the AFF Soil Bulletins are wonderful but there is no full
coverage. It all comes back to the old problem we have in this country,
i.e. the lack of standardised, full-coverage, accessible data on basic
resources such as soils, hydrology, geology, land use, habitats,
biological records etc. in map or GIS format.

Bye for now.
Ute 




> Conor Kretsch wrote:
> 
> Two issues which I would appreciate some assistance with!
> 
> 
>    * I am looking for any details on standard methods or best practice
>      in carrying out agricultural impact assessments - i.e. assessing
>      the impact of developments on agriculture - from individual farms
>      to national level. Assessing potential or actual developmental
>      impacts on soils, hydrology, air quality, economics etc is
>      relatively straightforward in terms of what actually needs to be
>      done, but despite hours of searching and phone contacts, I have
>      not been able to determine if there are any standard approaches
>      to tying them all in together from an agricultural context. I
>      have tried all the traditional routes and ports of call, and have
>      been quite surprised by the apathy displayed by most of the
>      'farming organisations' considering that this is entirely in
>      their best interest, particularly where REPS farms are concerned.
>      Do any guidelines exist or are there any hard and fast rules
>      which are followed?
> 
>           If not, is anyone interested in discussing this and perhaps
> coming up with a working document?
> 
> 
>    * Another point - it is often incredibly difficult or impossible to
>      get environmental information on individual farms or holdings,
>      e.g. soil type, soil quality, locations of wells, management
>      systems used and so on. This makes it equally difficult or
>      impossible to assess potential impacts on that environment or on
>      the agricultural practice itself. Therefore it is often necessary
>      to assume a worst case scenario which may be completely out of
>      context or inaccurate and may even hinder future agriculctural
>      improvements. Has anyone else come across these issues or can you
>      suggest a way around them?
> 
> All replies gratefully received.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Conor Kretsch