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Minister Heydon announces opening of ACRES Landscape Actions third application window
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Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon TD, today announced the opening of the third application window for Landscape Actions within the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES).
Minister Heydon said:
“Landscape Actions are and continue to be important complementary environmental actions available under the ACRES Co-operation approach, which is available to farmers in defined high priority geographical areas. These actions are designed to address, among other issues, invasive species management and encroaching scrub management in species rich grassland, threatened species and protect water quality. The Actions have been designed to target environmental issues, which have been highlighted in the scorecards for results-based payment. They help participants to improve the habitat quality of their land, which may in turn increase the score of that land, resulting in a higher payment for the participant.”
The Minister continued:
“Following the encouraging levels of applications received for the first and second application windows, I am pleased to announce the opening of this third application window just weeks after the second batch of approvals for the second application window have issued.”
The final specifications are available on the Department website, and ACRES Co-operation Project participants can apply for Landscape Actions through their Co-operation Project Team.
Notes to Editors
- The Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) is the Agri-environment climate measure under Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan for the period 2023-2027.
- The Scheme is jointly funded by the European Union and the national exchequer.
- There are two approaches within the Scheme:
- ACRES General, available nationally (outside of the high priority geographical area as defined for the ACRES Co-operation approach below), which offers a range of measures (both prescription and result-based); and
- ACRES Co-operation, available to farmers in defined high priority geographical areas. Map in Annex 1 of the ACRES Terms and Conditions for both Tranches shows the 8 ACRES Co-operation zones, with an ACRES Co-operation Project (CP) Team in place in each zone to assist the participants.
Landscape Actions in ACRES Co-operation approach
- Landscape Actions are targeted measures that will focus on issues such as invasive species management, encroaching scrub, threatened species and water quality protection, thereby offering benefits to the local environment.
- These Landscape Actions have been designed to target environmental issues, which have been highlighted in the scorecards for results-based payments and are causing a reduction in the score achieved.
- The targeted implementation of these actions should improve the results-based score achieved on that field/commonage in coming years leading to an increased payment.
- The final specifications are available on the Department website.
LA Application windows
- The first Landscape Actions application window opened on 18 July 2025 with a closing date of 30 September 2025
- The second application window, from 11 February 2026 to 29 May 2026, saw approvals issuing in two separate batches, the second issuing in soft copy on 30 July with hard copies issuing on 4 August.
- The third application window is now open.
LA Application Process
- ACRES CP participants can apply for Landscape Actions through their CP Team.
- The CP Team can create and submit a Landscape Action Annual Works Plan (LA-AWP) for the ACRES CP participants through the Generic Land Management (GLAM) mapping system maintained by the Dept. of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (DAFM).
- The Landscape Actions are then screened by the CP Team before approval can be issued. Authorisation for approved LA actions is from the date of issue of the LA-AWP Approval letter.
- Landscape Actions must not be undertaken in advance of receiving the approval letter to allow for full screening and pre-approval validations