RE:HARRIER Workshop

RE-HARRIER is a research project funded by SEAI and aims at providing a comprehensive evidence-base upon which to improve the guidance around wind-energy based ecological impact assessment for hen harrier in Ireland. Guidance for ecological impact assessments of wind energy developments in Ireland often rely on research conducted in other countries. While this approach provides a baseline of best available knowledge, there is strong evidence that such information is not always directly applicable in Ireland.

This 4-year project will aim to optimise the conservation management of hen harrier in Ireland through research work packages targeted at improving understanding of: habitat requirements, nest site fidelity, home range habitat requirements, flight height estimation, efficacy of compensatory habitat and collision mortality detection and avoidance. In support of the RE-HARRIER project, consultation with stakeholders and steering committee will be carried out for the full duration of the project.

To complete some of these work packages, the project is compiling existing project-level assessment and management data in a centralised accessible database. A considerable quantity of ornithological data is gathered by the wind energy industry and stored in an inaccessible format in published Environmental Impact Assessment Reports (EIARs). However, such data, if pooled, filtered and standardised has the potential to facilitate highly useful analysis to better understand the impact of wind energy development on hen harrier in Ireland. Such work is already being undertaken in-house at MKO whereby ornithological assessment data is collected, standardised, digitised and uploaded to an in-house repository. To scale up this data-standardisation to a national level for a hen harrier-based data, we would like to collate additional data that exists in the public domain by obtaining it directly from contacts in the Irish wind energy industry with the assistance of our partners at Wind Energy Ireland (WEI) to facilitate the inclusion of data from wind energy developments across Ireland.

WEI as the lead dissemination partner for the project, is facilitating an Information Session on the 31st of January 2024 to communicate the progress the project has achieved to date. We will be introducing our hen harrier database to increase awareness of the database and showcase how data might be contributed from interested participants. We are also looking for participants to provide feedback on the database as potential contributors and end-users.

There will be a main presentation from MKO on the RE-HARRIER project, approximately 20 minutes in length, followed by additional time for Q&A. The remainder of the time will be used to introduce the hen harrier database with a demonstration of the database in its current form. Audience participants can ask further questions on the database. The discussion will then be directed towards specific themes the project team would like feedback for such as data inclusion and accessibility, but additional themes and suggestions are welcome from participants.

Location: Meeting Room 6 , Clayton Hotel, Burlington Road 

Refreshments will be provided. 

Registration

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