New biodiversity targets will have far-reaching consequences, climate committee told

Ireland must face up to demanding new targets on biodiversity, which will have far-reaching consequences across many sectors and Government departments, the Oireachtas Committee on Environment and Climate Action has been told.

At UN level, an international agreement on a range of targets was likely to be finally nailed down this year, while the EU was already signalling strong intent, according to Dr Deirdre Lynn, scientific officer with the National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS).

This was against a background where all national, regional and global assessments have shown a decline in biodiversity. “Globally, we are degrading our natural assets by up to €19 trillion annually,” she noted.

Informed by the global agenda, the EU is pursuing “very ambitious targets” under its biodiversity strategy, which is part of the European green deal, she said, and was about to publish legally binding restoration targets under its nature restoration law.

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“This will include actions that will need to be implemented across many sectors, particularly agriculture, forestry and fisheries. The stark reality is that we need to restore thousands of kilometres squared of terrestrial land,” she underlined.

On top of this will be a requirement to halt and reverse the decline of pollinators, to reduce use and harmfulness of pesticides and to restore freshwater ecosystems “including 25,000km of free-flowing rivers across the EU”.

In restoring special habitats and peatlands, even greater protection of freshwater systems will be needed, including areas where “no activities” will be allowed so nature can be restored. There will be a requirement to bring EU-protected habitats and species back to favourable status, or to ensure no further deterioration.

The committee is examining the State’s response to biodiversity issues in advance of the COP15 global summit due to be staged next autumn.

Asked by Sinn Féin’s Darren O’Rourke if she had biodiversity concerns about EU plans to fast track planning for renewable energy projects, she said she accepted the need for renewables under the climate action heading, “but it must adhere to biodiversity legislation”.

Fine Gael’s Alan Farrell expressed “huge concerns” that local authorities were not adequately resourced, especially on river basin management. “It seems to me the State is heavily reliant on volunteerism,” he added — though that was commendable.

On building regulations, he said there should be an onus on developers to minimise the removal of mature trees and hedgerows on sites, as was required in other countries. “My experience in parts of Dublin is that they clear sites and build away,” he said.

Their concept of green space was “grass only” with little done to enhance biodiversity. Likewise, there was an over-reliance on cement and insufficient use of timber which was more sustainable, Mr Farrell said.

Dr Lynn said the NPWS was building up capacity within local authorities to respond to biodiversity issues. She underlined the need for green spaces alongside amenities “and everything doesn’t need to be neat and tidy”.

On a call for more “pollinator corridors” in urban areas, she said this had to apply right across the country including farmland, to facilitate movement of species.

She confirmed Ireland had the lowest cover of native woodlands in Europe — at just 2 per cent of land — which needed to be addressed.

With about 10 per cent of spending on biodiversity by the NPWS and 78 per cent by the Department of Agriculture, it should be asked if this was money well spent, she believed — though increasingly “a results-based approach”, such as in supporting farmers, was working.

On restoring raised bogs and peatlands, very good plans were necessary to ensure the work was effective. At present, there was “a scientific bottleneck” in putting these in place — notably a shortage of eco-geologists.

Ireland seemed to be signing up to “lots of ambition”, said Fine Gael’s Richard Bruton, but he questioned if the right policy tools were in place to ensure targets were met — including funding farmers and landowners to sequester carbon.

Such a funding mechanism was “only at an early stage”, Dr Lynn responded.

Committee chairman and Green Party TD Brian Leddin suggested there was a need to review the long-standing Arterial Drainage Act, which had undermined the ability of land to retain water, and often led to downstream flooding, which also had implications for biodiversity.

Spending large sums of money annually on drainage seemed inconsistent with the need to address biodiversity loss, he added, while State funding could be diverted to restoring biodiversity.

Mr Bruton said cost-benefit analysis of drainage works was often not looked at in a sufficiently holistic way by taking into account carbon impacts.

Dr Lynn said she favoured the use of natural systems to retain water to ease impacts of flooding including the use of flood plains. The drainage policy issue should be looked at under the forthcoming national land use review, she added.

Mr Leddin confirmed the committee will examine how best to incentivise carbon sequestration.