The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) has introduced a new mapping resource designed to enhance the protection of breeding wading birds in Northern Ireland.

This new sensitivity mapping tool developed by scientists from the British Trust for Ornithology in Northern Ireland (BTO NI), includes the most up to date information as of 2023 on protected breeding wader locations in Northern Ireland, providing an efficient snapshot into the density and distribution of breeding waders in Northern Ireland including Curlew, Lapwing, Redshank and Snipe.

This new sensitivity mapping tool now provides publicly available evidence on the distribution of breeding waders in Northern Ireland to inform policymakers and those planning land-use change including development or afforestation proposals.

The maps, however, do not replace the requirements for bird surveys to inform proposals for developments or afforestation.

Researchers from the BTO collated breeding wader data from a number of different sources going back to the 1980s to help indicate what areas are used by threatened wader species such as Curlew. This new tool is particularly important to Curlew since it has been described as the most pressing bird conservation priority in the UK.

The sensitivity map also highlights the location of key wader recovery areas in Northern Ireland where crucially important work has been going on via several wader recovery projects in recent years at the Antrim Plateau, Lough Erne, and south-west Lough Neagh.

Read more