The transfer of lands from semi-State companies to the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) is to form part of the Government’s response to the “abysmal” state of nature in Ireland.
Minister of State for Nature Christopher O’Sullivan said talks would begin with forestry company Coillte and energy firm Bord na Móna about moving some of their estates to NPWS management for nature restoration.
It comes as he accepted a report from an independent advisory committee set up to make recommendations for the country’s first nature restoration plan.
“It sets out some pretty stark realities. We know the state of nature is abysmal,” he said of the report. “There is not much to be proud of.”
RM Block
A key recommendation from the committee is that nature restoration begin on State lands, including those held by Coillte, which owns 7 per cent of the Republic’s land, and Bord na Móna, which has 1 per cent.
The companies are the State’s largest public landowners, but they have commercial mandates, meaning they must use their lands primarily for business and profit – Coillte for timber and Bord na Móna, previously for peat but now for wind farms.
O’Sullivan said rather than change their mandates, land could be acquired from them.
He said while both companies had some nature restoration projects, and Coillte adopted a mission statement in recent years to prioritise nature on 30 per cent of its estate, the NPWS was better placed to act as a nature restoration agency.
“Within NPWS, we have the expertise, the ecologists, the rangers on the ground who are experts at managing land for nature,” he said.
He said discussions on land acquisition needed to happen “so that we can get on with what we’re really good at, and that’s restoring nature.
He added that Coillte “can get on with what they’re good at and that’s the commercial element of providing timber”.
In a statement Coillte said it welcomed today’s report: ”We engaged with the chair of the Independent Advisory Committee as part of their consultation process, and we will continue to engage with key stakeholders to support the development of Ireland Nature Restoration Plan going forward.”
Bord na Móna meanwhile said it “noted the publication of the Independent Advisory Committee on Nature Restoration report and its recommendations”.
“Decisions regarding BnM’s statutory mandate are a matter for Government, our Minister and the Oireachtas,” it said.
All EU member states must produce nature restoration plans as part of a move to restore 20 per cent of degraded land, river and sea habitats to health by 2030, and all of them by 2050. In the Republic, 90 per cent of habitats are in poor health.
Farming organisations, who were represented on the advisory committee, have said they support nature restoration only if it is entirely voluntary, paid for and begun on State lands.
The committee said a dedicated nature restoration fund should be created and allocated up to €700 million per year to finance payment schemes for farmers, other landowners and fishers, invest directly in nature restoration projects and beef up the NPWS.
Committee chair Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin said proper funding was essential if nature restoration was to be taken seriously.
“Funding should be there that is ring-fenced specifically for nature restoration,” she said.
“It’s better that we pay for it now so that we benefit into the future.
“If nature goes, that’s our food system, our water system, our air.”
Minister O’Sullivan said the recommendations would be implemented and funded, and his own preference was for a dedicated nature restoration fund.
He said talks were already under way in Government, including with Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers, about what shape that fund would take.
The recommendations will feed into the formal nature restoration plan, the first draft of which is scheduled to go to public consultation for a month beginning May 25th.
The draft, including any amendments arising from the consultation, must then be approved by Government and submitted to the European Commission by September 1st this year.
Feedback from the commission will inform the final draft, which must be published and submitted to Europe by September 1st of next year.
