The upper Ballinderry River in the Cookstown district is one of the few Northern Ireland rivers still retaining a significant and viable freshwater pearl mussel population. Atlantic stream crayfish, otter and kingfisher are present along the river and salmon and brown trout are regularly caught. The River is a Candidate SAC on a European basis because of otter, the freshwater pearl mussel and a habitat dominated by water-crowfoot.

WWF is working in partnership with the Ballinderry River Enhancement Association whose vision is “to restore the Ballinderry River to its former glory”. The group has been blazing a trail in river restoration and has been highly successful in expanding spawning areas, restoring native trout numbers and providing angling access and learning opportunities through it's River School. In 1995 the group formed a new community business – Ballinderry Fish Hatchery Ltd., which runs the hatchery, provides fisheries consultancy and sells fish and fishery products.

The ambitious aim of the Ballinderry Enhancement Project is to demonstrate a significant improvement in water quality along a specified stretch of the Ballinderry River during the course of the project as a result of concerted action by farmers.

The work will include persuading a group of farmers and landowners within a specific catchment to participate in agri-environment schemes that will encourage farmers to adopt water protection measures and compensate for income foregone. It will also include establishing buffer strips to reduce diffuse pollution and bank restoration to prevent soil erosion will all be considered along the selected stretch.

Current activities underway include the assessment of the four main tributaries that feed into the SAC part of the Ballinderry River. We have also started talking to farmers in the area with a view to raising their awareness of water quality issues - all very timely as there is currently a big political debate as to what action programme should be implemented across NI under the Nitrates Directive

For further information contact:

Alex McGarel, Freshwater Policy Officer
WWF Northern Ireland
13 West Street,
Carrickfergus, BT38 7AR
E-mail: amcgarel@wwf.org.uk
Tel: 028 93 355166
Fax: 028 93 364448

The European Commission has today adopted a regulation concerning “de minimis” aid for the agriculture and fisheries sectors. The regulation exempts national aid of up to € 3,000 per farmer and fisherman over three years from the requirement of prior notification.

This initiative will be a useful tool to help farmers in a crisis situation. To avoid distortions of competition, Member States granting such aid will have to respect an overall ceiling roughly equal to 0.3% of agricultural or fisheries output. Member States may grant aid fulfilling all the conditions of the regulation without prior approval by the Commission. But they will have to keep registers to show both ceilings have been respected. The regulation has been adopted following a broad consultation of Member States and third parties.
The regulation would also cover aid granted to companies processing and marketing agricultural and fisheries products.

If all Member States fully use this possibility, this would amount to an average amount of "de minimis" aid of around € 317 million per year for agriculture and around € 27 million per year for fisheries, for the whole of the EU. In order to offer more flexibility to Member States, the Regulation sets out amounts to be respected over a period of three years (and not per year). The amounts that each Member State may grant per three-year period have been calculated by the Commission and are set out in an Annex. The three-year periods are mobile, so that for each new grant of “de minimis” aid, the total amount of such aid granted during the previous three years needs to be determined.

Member States may grant “de minimis” aid in any way they like. However, the regulation sets out a few limitations in order to avoid distortions. For example, no export aid may be granted.

This regulation completes an extensive overhaul of state aid rules applicable to the agriculture sector undertaken since 1995. Rules have been modernised, simplified, consolidated and made more transparent.