Farmers should receive special payments for protecting the environment and heritage monuments on their lands, the Heritage Council has said.
In a submission to the Department of Agriculture, the council has proposed changes to the Rural Environment Protection Scheme (Reps) that would see "additional incentives" going to farmers who contribute most to heritage management.
For the next phase of the Reps programme, starting in 2007, it suggests rewards for farmers who restore and manage habitats for endangered wildlife and plant species; protect archaeological monuments and traditional farm buildings; and offer new recreational and tourism features in the countryside. Payment for the maintenance of walking routes is also proposed.
"There is a great opportunity for farmers and landowners to play a more significant role in managing our national heritage and this would lead to many benefits for the wider community and could help provide new recreational and tourism enterprises," said Michael Starrett, chief executive of the council.
He said that the decline in agriculture over the past decade had coincided with the national heritage - including wildlife, plants and archaeological monuments - coming under greater threat.
"All too often, agriculture and heritage are seen as polar opposites. While there are occasions when this is the case, the council feels there is now a tremendous opportunity to introduce positive incentives for farmers that would improve rural incomes."
The Irish Farmers' Association welcomed the initiative and said farmers had already played a pivotal role in preserving natural heritage since Reps began in 1994.
The IFA's rural development chairman, Pádraic Divilly, said that over 50,000 farmers have taken part in agri-environmental measures such as preserving habitats, archaeological sites, traditional farm buildings, maintaining of stone walls and managing hedgerows.
Council ecologist Dr Liam Lysaght said that two separate agricultural trends were impacting on the rural environment. Both the move towards intensive farming, occurring mainly in the east, and the abandonment of unproductive lands, many of them in the west, required attention. The over-proliferation of fencing also needed to be tackled.
"Farmers need to be supported for delivering a public good - the support of rich habitats - while also producing high-quality food," he said.
Dr Lysaght gave a number of examples of habitats that are endangered by the changes in farm practice.
Hilly land used for grazing creates a rich habitat but one that changes markedly when the grazing ends and the hills become covered in more coarse vegetation or scrub.
In the Burren, for example, many archaeological features are threatened by the spread of hazel scrub because this is no longer cut back.
Changes in farming practices are placing dozens of plant and animal species under threat, according to the Heritage Council.
A trend towards intensive agriculture and the abandonment of unproductive farms on marginal land pose equally important but quite different threats to wildlife, it says. Council chief executive Michael Starrett likened the situation to the "ripping up" of rural railway lines half a century ago: "If we allow these changes to take place without doing anything to protect the environment, we'll be asking ourselves in 50 years' time why we did nothing".
The council says 29 species of bird and 120 species of flowering plant are in serious decline, partly because of the changes in farming.
While the corncrake is the best-known bird under threat, other species are also causing concern, according to ecologist Dr Liam Lysaght.
The chough, he said, was found only in areas which are farmed, and would therefore be affected by the decline in farming.
The lapwing, whose number have fallen 50 per cent in 20 years, was in a similar situation.
The once-common cuckoo is now largely confined to the east and central part of the country, he said, while the corncrake was "hanging on" in a few locations. It isn't just birds who are affected; the mash fritillary butterfly, for example, will disappear if grazing is removed. Arable weeds like darnel and corn cockle have also been in danger since the intensification of tillage farming.
For some species, it's already too late; the corn bunting, for example, became extinct in Ireland over 20 years ago.
