EU Report on the state of Ireland’s habitats and species reveals a mountain still to climb-Noonan
The latest report from the EU Commission on the state of Ireland’s habitats and species reveals the huge gulf that still exists between policy and the resourcing of implementation measures to turn the tide of the loss of nature here. Commenting on the ‘Article 17’ report, a mandatory six year reporting cycle under the EU Habitats Directive, Senator Malcolm Noonan said that while significant investment and a renewal of the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) led by the Greens in Government had set Ireland on the right path, the reality is that we have a mountain to climb to undo the damage done to nature by ineffective governance and lack of political will for decades.
‘These reports are a useful snapshot in time as to where we are with nature conservation. It is disheartening that despite the immense collaborative efforts of NPWS, of communities, of farmers, fishers, coastal communities and agencies, that we are seeing an overall decline in our habitats on the last reporting cycle’.
He said that there were some positives in the report with two thirds of protected species showing stable with positive trends. This shows that the right measures in the right place, with adequate human and financial resources can show a relatively quick turnaround in the fortunes of a species, but that the overall trend is not a good one.
‘We have a once in a generation opportunity with the upcoming National Nature Restoration Plan to reconnect, expand and improve so many habitats in Ireland. The All -Ireland Pollinator Plan showed what we can do for grasslands and meadows, now it’s vital that we build on this success and lead on more collaborative actions. Unfortunately, however there is no new money for nature restoration. The nature fund set aside by the Greens in Government, has been swallowed up by metro north.'
‘Equally the agriculture minister has nothing to be triumphalist about celebrating the three year extension to the nitrates derogation as a win. It’s clearly not a win for our streams, rivers, lakes and estuaries and I don’t believe in the long term, that it’s a win for farming. The Government must lay out a comprehensive, funded plan to support farmers in the long term to deal with the nitrates problem once and for all’.
Senator Noonan said that the report should put into sharp focus the need to ramp up investment in nature, in water quality and to continue the expansion in staffing in the National Parks and Wildlife Service to ensure it is adequately resourced to lead on the nature restoration plan and in reversing the decline in our habitats.
‘This report makes for difficult reading but it’s not surprising. We have trashed nature over many decades in Ireland, treated it as an inconvenience or a commodity for exploitation. It’s time to change that relationship and for us all to see our natural world as our greatest ally against climate breakdown; for in restoring it, we restore ourselves’.
