Farmer Nature Reporting Process Guidance for farms in Northern Ireland

Step 1: Creating a Land App account

Create a FREE Land App account by registering here.

Step 2: Creating a map

If you have created a new account we automatically take you into a new map called New Map - Please ensure you change the name to be “FarmName_Surname_SupplierName”, this guidance shows how.

If you are already have a Land App account you will need to create a new map in your Land App account (guidance here). ENSURE you follow the correct naming structure for your map “FarmName_Surname_SupplierName”.

Step 3: Creating your farm boundary

In your map, select the Stadia Maps as your Base Map (guidance here).

To begin creating your farm boundary in Land App, you will need a map of your farm that you can either copy or upload to Land App.

If you already have your field parcel data in Land App or in a GeoJSON format, you can upload your map directly to Land App (guidance here).

If you have a printed or static (e.g. pdf) map of your farm, you can create this map in Land App using the Draw freehand feature (guidance here).

Pro tip for drawing your farm boundary: We recommend first drawing a polygon to capture the whole farm boundary. Then, use the split tool (guidance here) to divide the whole farm boundary into your field parcels. This is simpler than drawing the fields individually and helps to avoid overlaps.

Step 4: Creating your Baseline Habitat Assessment

Once you are happy with your farm boundary, you’re ready to start your habitat mapping.

Use the Duplicate plan feature (guidance here) to copy your plan. ENSURE you copy you plan to the “Baseline Habitat Assessment V2” template and ENSURE you follow the correct naming structure “BHA_FarmName_SupplierName”.

Assign habitats to your Baseline Habitat Assessment

You can now begin mapping your farm’s habitats by assigning land uses to your fields using the guidance below.

Increase the accuracy of your baseline by:

Changing the habitats by assigning a different land use to your fields (guidance here).
Adding more detailed features to the map including linear features such as hedgerows (guidance here), drawing field corners or plots such as wildflower patches, scrub or bird cover (guidance here) and creating margins or buffers (guidance here).

Pro tip: Reviewing public data about your farm: You can use the DAERA Natural Environment Map Viewer to review data relevant to your farm.

This map viewer allows you to view a wide range of datasets, including: ****

Protected Areas: Includes Special Areas of Conservation (SACs), Areas of Special Scientific Interest (ASSIs), and Ramsar sites.
Priority Habitats: Surveyed ecological areas such as rough grass margins, wetlands, and woodland boundaries,
Countryside Survey Data: Provides detailed field boundary, land use, and habitat classification data based on field surveys and
Agricultural Critical Risk Areas: Identifies areas prone to nutrient runoff based on CEH land cover, soil, and hydraulic data

These data layers can help you assign the correct habitats to your fields by providing habitat and land use information.

Step 5: Creating a Land Management Plan (NOT ESSENTIAL FOR ALL PROJECTS)

If you would like to/or are required to also create a Land Management Plan, you will need to create a new plan (guidance here) and select the “Land Management Plan V2” template. You can then copy fields where you are planning land management changes to this plan (guidance here) and edit and assign habitats to these features using the same tools as for you Baseline Habitat Assessment. ENSURE you follow the correct naming structure “LMP_FarmName_SupplierName”.

Step 6: Submit you plans

Once you are happy with your plans, you can share the maps with the required Nature Reporting Organisation. To do this select the leaf icon at the top of the screen.

And on the Farm info tab select Start Sharing.

On the following screen select Add Farm Details.

Complete the information on this screen and select Submit.

Next, in the plans selection click on Select Baseline.

You will now be presented with a list of one or more Baseline plans. Select the plan that you wish to submit and click on Submit.

Please note the following steps are Not essential for all projects. If required for your process now click on Select Land Management Plan.

You will now be presented with a list of one or more Land Management plans. Select the plan that you wish to submit and click on Submit.

The next step is to click on Publish.

Select who (which retailer) you want to publish the data to from the dropdown.

Then select the Produce type/s and Processor(s), multiple are allowed, and click on Publish.

This completes the steps for submitting your plan(s).

What happens next

Now that you have submitted your data, your bespoke farm report will be shared with you. It will provide insights into your farm's impact on biodiversity, suggest where changes could have the greatest effect, and highlight key risks and opportunities.

Data limitations in Northern Ireland

Currently, when you receive your Nature Reporting farm metrics, you will not see data related to the metrics:

Cropland and modified grassland <12m to a water course (%)
Productive land within a Floodzone (%);
Productive land within a water-stressed area (%);
or Waterbody ecological condition.

This is due to current data limitations. These metrics in your report will read N/A. We are continuously updating the data we have in Land App and we let you know when this data is available.