A joint venture to help protect the endangered Irish grey partridge was officially launched yesterday by Minister for the Environment Dick Roche.
The Irish grey partridge (perdix perdix) is a critically endangered species in Ireland, with the only remaining viable population located in Boora, Co Offaly.
The bird, once common around the country, rapidly declined in the late 20th century due to the intensification of farming and the destruction of hedgerows and bogs.
A conservation effort, by the Irish Grey Partridge Conservation Trust, to save the Boora population began in 1996. It involved habitat management, predator control and research, and was helped by the importation of 50 Estonian partridges with the same genetic profile in 2005.
The trust has now formed a partnership with the National Association of Regional Games Councils (NARGC) and created a new company, the National Grey Partridge Conservation Project Ltd.
The company has been granted a contract by Mr Roche to take over responsibility for the Boora project and develop a national conservation strategy for the bird over the next five years.
Some €1.2 million has been provided by the department to finance the project. The new company will also manage 80 acres close to the Boora project lands, purchased recently by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), and will employ two full-time gamekeepers.
Some of the partridges will be relocated to a satellite project in Cork which will be funded by the new company and the NPWS. The long-term aim of the project is to repopulate the countryside with the game bird.
NARGC director Des Crofton, who will assume responsibility for managing the project, said the association wanted one of Ireland's premier native game species returned to a favourable conservation status where it can sustain a "huntable harvest".
Speaking at the launch, Mr Roche said that he was pleased relations with the NARGC were good.
"I learned at a very early stage to have respect for people with guns," he said.
