All farm land within the top eight freshwater pearl mussel catchments can be considered for payment with the exceptions of buildings (and their curtilage), extensive water, farmyards, quarries, and commercial forest.
Detailed maps of the eligible catchments can be provided by the Project Team or can be viewed here.
Lands should be declared on the applicant’s current Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) application to be considered for the Programme.
Commonages
The project team have reviewed all commonages within the catchments and selected those of highest priority for entry into the Programme during 2019 and 2020. The of priority commonages and the means of selection is described in the Priority Commonage report which can be downloaded here. Details of the priority commonage can be provided by the project team or can be viewed here. Depending on budget, commonage parcels outside of this priority list will be added in future years.
Eligible commonage shareholders in the priority parcels are encouraged to apply to join the Programme during the initial recruitment window (spring 2019).
On commonage lands, the fraction declared by the participant on their current BPS application will be considered for payment. Where the catchment boundary splits a land parcel, only the proportion within the catchment boundary will be paid on.