As funding is limited, it may not be possible to accommodate all eligible applicants. For each catchment, applicants will be ranked by the Project Team according to the criteria outlined below with further information in the Programme Terms and Conditions document. The highest ranked applicants will be shortlisted for acceptance at regular intervals during the recruitment phase.
Unsuccessful applicants will automatically roll over to be considered again for the next round of recruitment, therefore it is recommended that prospective applicants submit an application at the earliest possible time to increase their chances of being accepted.
The proximity and connectivity to freshwater pearl mussel habitat will be used to prioritise applicants into one of 4 categories (see Step 1 below).
Following this, applicants will then be individually ranked within these four categories according to the ratio of length of mapped watercourse to land area (see Step 2 below). This means that within each category the highest rank will be assigned to the applicant with the highest length of watercourses in relation to land area.
Participating farmers with private lands within the catchment will only get paid on their commonage shareholdings where they relate to a priority commonage parcel.
