A farmer from Knockninny Hill, Derrylin, County Fermanagh has been fined £20,000 for damaging an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI), in July 2004. The Environment and Heritage Service estimated that around 14 hectares of the ASSI had been severely damaged through deforestation of woodland, drainage of grassland and agricultural improvement through reseeding. The farmer was charged in Enniskillen Magistrates Court with breaching the Environment (Northern Ireland) Order SI 2002/3153, and a restoration order was granted which requires him to restore the site to its former condition at his own expense.
The area of land was declared as an ASSI on 31 July 1997, because of its limestone features and the biological interest related to the quality and diversity of the woodland and grassland. The Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland was informed of the damaging reclamation activities on 9 July 2004, and an injunction was obtained stopping them by 28 July.
