Raised Bog Conservation Study National Raised Bog SAC Management Plan Strategic Environmental Assessment Environmental Report IBE0802Rp0010 rpsgroup.com/ireland National Raised Bog SAC Management Plan SEA Environmental Report TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY .................................................................................................. 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION (C HAPTER 2)............................................................................................. 1 1.2 DESCRIPTION OF THE PLAN (C HAPTER 3) .......................................................................... 2 1.3 METHODOLOGY (C HAPTER 4) ........................................................................................... 3 1.4 REVIEW OF RELEVANT PLANS , POLICIES AND PROGRAMMES (C HAPTER 5) .......................... 5 1.5 THE BASELINE ENVIRONMENT (C HAPTER 6) ...................................................................... 6 1.6 STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL OBJECTIVES , TARGETS AND INDICATORS (C HAPTER 7) .......... 8 1.7 ALTERNATIVES (C HAPTER 8) ........................................................................................... 10 1.8 ASSESSMENT (C HAPTER 9) ............................................................................................. 10 1.9 MITIGATION AND MONITORING (C HAPTER 10) .................................................................. 10 1.10 NEXT STEPS (C HAPTER 11) ............................................................................................ 11 1.11 KEY FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .......................................................................... 11 2 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 13 2.1 BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................ 13 2.2 RAISED BOGS IN IRELAND ............................................................................................... 14 2.3 ANATOMY OF RAISED BOG .............................................................................................. 15 2.4 STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT ..................................................................... 22 2.5 RESPONSIBLE AUTHORITY AND STUDY TEAM ................................................................... 22 3 THE PLAN ................................................................................................................................ 23 3.1 BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................ 24 3.2 SCIENTIFIC BASIS FOR RAISED BOG CONSERVATION IN IRELAND ...................................... 24 3.3 APPROACH TO DETERMINATION OF STATUS ..................................................................... 25 3.4 CONTENTS OF DRAFT NATIONAL SAC MANAGEMENT PLAN .............................................. 27 4 METHODOLOGY ...................................................................................................................... 32 4.1 GUIDANCE ..................................................................................................................... 33 4.2 SCREENING .................................................................................................................... 34 4.3 SCOPING ....................................................................................................................... 34 4.4 APPROPRIATE ASSESSMENT OF NATURA 2000 SITES ....................................................... 41 4.5 DIFFICULTIES AND DATA GAPS ........................................................................................ 41 5 OTHER RELEVANT PLANS AND POLICIES ......................................................................... 43 5.1 HIEARCHY OF PLANS ...................................................................................................... 43 6 BASELINE ENVIRONMENT .................................................................................................... 47 6.1 BASELINE AND RELEVANT ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS ................................................... 47 6.2 EVOLUTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE ABSENCE OF THE PLAN .................................. 105 7 ENVIRONMENTAL OBJECTIVES, TARGETS AND INDICATORS ..................................... 108 7.1 DEVELOPMENT OF STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL OBJECTIVES , TARGETS AND INDICATORS 108 8 CONSIDERATION OF ALTERNATIVES ............................................................................... 119 MDE1131Rp0003 i Rev F02 National Raised Bog SAC Management Plan SEA Environmental Report 8.1 NATIONAL TOOLKIT OF MEASURES ................................................................................ 119 8.2 NATIONAL STRATEGY [P ROGRAMME OF MEASURES ] ...................................................... 121 9 ASSESSMENT ....................................................................................................................... 124 9.1 ASSESSMENT APPROACH ............................................................................................. 124 9.2 ASSESSMENT PARAMETERS .......................................................................................... 124 9.3 TOOLKIT OF MEASURES ................................................................................................ 126 9.4 DO MINIMUM SCENARIO ................................................................................................ 133 9.5 PROGRAMME OF MEASURES [P REFERRED STRATEGY ] ................................................... 133 10 MITIGATION AND MONITORING .......................................................................................... 150 10.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 150 10.2 SOURCES OF INFORMATION FOR MONITORING ............................................................... 150 10.3 MITIGATION (R ECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE SEA TO FEED INTO THE NATIONAL SAC RAISED BOG MANAGEMENT PLAN ) ................................................................................ 150 11 NEXT STEPS .......................................................................................................................... 156 MDE1131Rp0003 ii Rev F02 National Raised Bog SAC Management Plan SEA Environmental Report LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1: Inter-relationship of SEA Topics ...................................................................................... 8 Figure 2.1: Distribution of Active and Degraded Raised bog in Ireland (NPWS) ............................ 15 Figure 2.2: Structure of a Raised Bog [source: www.ipcc.ie ] .......................................................... 16 Figure 2.3: Map of Raised Bog SACs in Ireland (in the Context of River Basin Districts) .............. 21 Figure 2.4: Overview of SEA Process ............................................................................................. 22 Figure 3.1: Raised Bog Network Considered in the Draft Plan ....................................................... 31 Figure 4.1: Overview of the Scoping Process. ................................................................................ 35 Figure 5.1: Draft Hierarchy of Plans and Policies............................................................................ 46 Figure 6.1: Raised bog SAC and Waterbodies per River Basin District ......................................... 60 Figure 6.2: Soil Maps of Areas Raised Bog SACs are located (in the Context of River Basin Districts) ........................................................................................................................ 66 Figure 6.3 (1-5): River Waterbody Status Maps of areas Raised Bog SACs are located (in the Context of River Basin Districts) ............................................................................................... 74 Figure 6.4 (1-5): Groundwater Status Maps of areas Raised Bog SACs are located (in the Context of River Basin Districts) ................................................................................................... 79 Figure 6.5: River Waterbody Status Maps of Areas Raised Bog SACs are Located (in the Context of River Basin Districts) ................................................................................................. 91 Figure 7.1: Inter-relationship of SEA Topics .................................................................................. 111 LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1: Summary of Raised Bog Status Changes ...................................................................... 2 Table 1.2: Information contained in the Environmental Report. ....................................................... 4 Table 2.1: List of the 53 Raised Bog SAC in Ireland ...................................................................... 18 Table 3.1: Summary of Raised Bog Status Changes .................................................................... 26 MDE1131Rp0003 iii Rev F02 National Raised Bog SAC Management Plan SEA Environmental Report Table 4.1: SEA Process and Status in Relation to National Raised Bog Management Plan ........ 32 Table 4.2: Scope of the SEA .......................................................................................................... 35 Table 4.3: Summary of Number of Responses and Submissions ................................................. 38 Table 4.4: Key Elements of the Environmental Report .................................................................