A fund-raising proposal by Laois Regional Game Council some years ago, to buy habitats for wild duck, has been a huge success. Five years ago Laois members suggested to the 20,000-strong National Association of Regional Game Councils that the association should introduce an Irish Habitat Conservation Stamp programme to raise funds to conserve marshes, estuaries and lakes for wild birds.
The proposal was adopted and now the NARGC is set to raise £40,000 a year from the scheme to propagate all breeds of wild duck throughout the State. The idea is based on an American model, the Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp, which dates from 1934 and has raised over $300 million to buy 30.5 million acres of wetlands. The NARGC took the idea to Europe and the first stamp was issued in 1995 in Denmark, followed by Sweden, Ireland, Italy and Belgium.
The Irish stamp was by far the most successful and featured a pair of mallard duck dropping on to water. Its sale raised £120,000 and was very popular in the US.
The money from the sale of the stamps is administered by a special committee made up of representatives of the Heritage Council, An Taisce, FACE, the international federation of hunters, the Irish Peatlands Conservation Council and BirdWatch Ireland.
This committee has already dealt with 10 aid applications from organisations involved in buying bogs and other wetlands in Cork, Waterford, Offaly, Westmeath and Sligo. Further applications are sought.
Speaking of BirdWatch Ireland, I attended a very pleasant gathering of people from all over Ireland recently in Banagher, Co Offaly, where a special wall chart was launched in Crank House.
Later the audience was invited to go for a walk on the meadows near the town to hear the corncrake, on which this year's census has just started.