A commitment has been made to monitor the condition of commonage to demonstrate, in particular, that initiatives are delivering recovery in overgrazed areas and that undergrazing is not becoming a problem. This involves a reassessment of habitats (in plans, subunits and stations) in commonage areas, some of which were assessed as early as 1999. Planning teams comprising both agriculturalists and environmentalists have been trained and re-surveys have been completed in commonage blocks in Counties Mayo, Galway, Cork, Kerry, Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Tipperary, Limerick and Louth between 2004 and 2010. Monitoring reports have been forwarded to the EU Commission highlighting the findings and trends. Additional survey work in 2007 focussed on Counties Mayo, Donegal and Kerry. In 2008, all commonage that had a destocking of greater than 50% were re-assessed.
Ireland also has obligations to monitor the state of designated areas containing uplands and peatlands in non-commonage areas.
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| Commonage (Photo: NPWS) | Upland Farmland (Photo: NPWS) |