Sarah Prosser and Pieter Ploeg on the need for an Irish Land Observatory
Picture Ireland’s countryside: a mosaic of small green fields divided by darker whitethorn hedgerows, clusters of cows and sheep chewing the lush grass, and skylarks and damselflies flying around ponds nestled in the corners of farms that have been in the same family for generations. This picture, along with rolling heather hills, bogs, peatlands and dramatic coastlines, give the Irish landscape its distinctive character. It is the canvas for Ireland’s land-based biodiversity – providing everything from food, shelter and movement corridors for pollinators and wildlife, flood prevention and carbon storage. It is a living system, shaped by millennia of the rock, soil and water determining the flora, the fauna and the traditions of small-scale family farming.
A generational turning point
But that system is under quiet, accelerating pressure. According to the CSO’s 2023 Farm Structure Survey, nearly two in five of Ireland’s farm holders are now aged 65 or over, while under-35s make up just 4.3% of the sector. Only about half of farmers have any kind of succession plan in place. As older farmers retire or pass on, their land increasingly goes not to the next generation of smaller family farmers, but to the highest bidder – and with it, the hedgerows, the ponds, the patchwork fields, and the stewardship ethic that maintained them. The data to track and understand this shift barely exists or if it does it is hard to access. But a group of Irish farmers and land advocates are trying to change that.
A call for greater transparency
In February 2026, farmer Donal Sheehan delivered some powerful closing remarks to the Irish Parliament’s (Oireachtas) Joint Committee on Agriculture and Food on the role of small farmers in stewarding Ireland’s landscapes and advocated for the 4 Returns Framework.
Donal spoke as part of a multi-stakeholder group spearheaded by another farmer, Daniel Long, who are arguing that Ireland urgently needs to understand its land better: who owns it, who is buying it, and what trends in land ownership and use are shifting – largely out of sight and out of mind? They want to see an Irish Land Observatory established to enhance transparency on land transactions, price trends and land use change.
Why an Irish Land Observatory matters
The Land Observatory group argue that, if access to transparent and trusted data doesn’t improve, Ireland may soon lose its traditional smaller ‘family farms’ amid rising land consolidation, and in some instances, corporate-owned land portfolios. Ireland is not alone in Europe and beyond in having older farmers without successors to inherit and take over the family farm. Their land is sold, not to the next generation of new entrant family farmers or the small-holder neighbour looking to expand with an extra plot, but to whoever from the land-use sector has the most money. This often means investors or other entities that focus on maximizing business potential first and rural development and nature second (if at all).
Donal’s own story is from his dairy farm in Cork (a mix of leased and owned land), where he has dedicated the last decade to introducing biodiversity and more ecological practices with considerable long-term financial investments. This investment, and much of the viability of the farm’s business case, has been lost overnight due to the leased land being suddenly sold to the highest bidders with no consideration for the survival of the family farm that has been there for generations.
“Without transparent oversight of land transactions and values, the system continues to reward scale over stewardship – undermining viable family farms, environmental gains, and generational renewal.”
The role of a Land Observatory is ultimately about more than data collection of acquisition, price, ownership and ecological impact – it’s about access and fairness and potentially about shifting systems so price isn’t the only factor in land sales. If the data is there, it can help design policies that prioritise generational renewal, stewardship, balance and rural community needs over speculation. An independent, trusted tracking-mechanism is needed – in the form of a Land Observatory.
The risks of land consolidation
Some degree of land consolidation – when separate, adjoining parcels of land are bought up by the same person or entity and packaged into one larger area – has long been argued for as a potential rural development tool to improve the efficiency of farms, introduce “modern” farming methods, and in some cases to restore fragmented ecosystems or establish ecological corridors. However, when land sales involve the consolidation of land into far fewer hands, there can be damaging consequences for local communities and economies, and nature.
Larger farms tend to mean larger fields and a reduction in hedgerows, ponds and biodiversity. What could this look like in the context of Ireland’s landscapes and people? It means Ireland’s signature patchwork landscapes dotted with fields, hedgerows and diverse farming types could disappear because they depend on the smaller family farm model.
Reimagining land
Family farming and land-use is at the core of Irish identity and the legal frameworks it works within. Arc2020 frames this well in a recent article on the proposed Irish Land Observatory:
“the (Land) Observatory would serve as a guardian of the public interest, ensuring that land management practices adhere to Ireland’s constitutional commitment to secure economic security for as many families as possible on the land.”
The work Donal, Daniel and our allies in the multi-stakeholder group are doing — including other partners like Talamh Beo and Hedgerows Ireland — represents exactly the kind of ground-up, evidence-led advocacy that lasting land policy change requires. A Land Observatory won’t just generate data; it has the potential to reframe how Ireland thinks about land: not as a commodity to be traded at the highest price, but as a shared inheritance to be stewarded across generations. We believe this group are the right people to shape such an observatory into something genuinely useful, for every community in Ireland.
