Dr. Andy Bleasdale:

On the flagship sites I have seen work well in the past, be they in the Burren or the Shannon Callows when it was working there, it was only through a co-brokering of a solution involving local people in the delivery of that outcome that one would ever hope to achieve an outcome. I was previously involved in another Department, although I was wearing an NPWS hat, in the destocking days. We were destocking sheep from up on landscapes. That delivered a result by dint of a reduction in sheep numbers but we lost the argument when letters were posted to farmers to state they must destock by 300 sheep. The pressure was taken off and the vegetation came back but it was not a sustainable solution. The destocking was being paid for in perpetuity. I referred to the wild Atlantic nature model. We are giving control back to the farmer to achieve a score. Farmers can be innovative. They know how to deliver a product to the mart. If the ecosystem mart requires improved habitat management, they will deliver that product if they know how to do so. They will work it out themselves. All we need to work out is how to support, give advice and reward farmers to achieve more or choose to achieve more. That will not be everybody.