Mountshannon White-tailed Sea Eagle Development Plan The feasibility and development of socio-economic benefits around wildlife viewing at Mountshannon, Lough Derg, Co. Clare Report to Mountshannon Community Council Authors: Alan Lauder, Ronan O’Flaherty This project has been part-funded by the LEADER programme, through The National Development Plan and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development 1 2 Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................................ 5 Image credits .............................................................................................................................................. 5 Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................................ 6 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 8 The project origins ......................................................................................................................................... 9 Eagles at Mountshannon – recent history ..................................................................................................... 9 Community socio-economic aspirations ...................................................................................................... 11 White-tailed Sea Eagles – ecology, heritage and conservation ................................................................... 12 White-tailed Sea Eagle re-introduction to Ireland ................................................................................... 13 Breeding behaviour and biology .............................................................................................................. 14 Chick development .................................................................................................................................. 14 Conservation ............................................................................................................................................ 15 Threats ..................................................................................................................................................... 15 Wildlife Tourism – a general view ................................................................................................................ 16 Raptors as a wildlife spectacle ................................................................................................................. 17 2. Project Review ............................................................................................................................................. 19 Review Approach ......................................................................................................................................... 20 Project performance and metrics ................................................................................................................ 20 Project outputs - physical structures, materials and experiences ............................................................... 23 Bird Viewing & Information Point (BVIP) ................................................................................................. 23 Stakeholder and external views of the project ............................................................................................ 28 Project Resources......................................................................................................................................... 32 Financial ................................................................................................................................................... 32 Personnel ................................................................................................................................................. 34 3. The wider contexts ....................................................................................................................................... 35 Ecology, Environment & Conservation ........................................................................................................ 36 Environmental considerations in planning .................................................................................................. 39 Strategic ....................................................................................................................................................... 39 Economics .................................................................................................................................................... 43 Community/Social benefits and considerations .......................................................................................... 43 Synergy and competition ............................................................................................................................. 44 4. SWOT Analysis .............................................................................................................................................. 45 5. Markets ........................................................................................................................................................ 47 Overview .................................................................................................................................................. 48 General Market ........................................................................................................................................ 49 3 Overseas Market ...................................................................................................................................... 51 Domestic Market...................................................................................................................................... 52 Drivers for Overseas Visitors .................................................................................................................... 53 Drivers for Domestic Visitors ................................................................................................................... 55 Overseas and Domestic High-level comparison....................................................................................... 55 Knowing your customer - Overseas & Domestic Segments ..................................................................... 56 Coach Tourism ......................................................................................................................................... 58 The Schools Market.................................................................................................................................. 59 What’s the overall market potential? ...................................................................................................... 60 6. Case Studies ................................................................................................................................................. 62 Wildlife Tourism - general ............................................................................................................................ 63 Examples of wildlife viewing, viewpoints and wildlife festival projects worldwide .................................... 63 CASE STUDY 1 Wexford Wildfowl Reserve .................................................................................................. 65 CASE STUDY 2 Galloway Kite Trail, Galloway, Scotland ............................................................................... 70 7. Project Planning ........................................................................................................................................... 75 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 76 Vision and themes ........................................................................................................................................ 76 What will this look like? ........................................................................................................................... 79 Physical Implementation (what needs to be 'built' or constructed) ........................................................... 83 Brand Development ..................................................................................................................................... 92 Managing Visit Cycle – How will the experience work? .............................................................................. 94 Outline costs and income ............................................................................................................................ 98 Operational Model & Feasibility ................................................................................................................ 101 Management structure .......................................................................................................................... 101 Key personnel......................................................................................................................................... 103 Strategic partnerships ...........................................................................................................................