The Irish Times view on Ireland’s nature plan: implementation must not fail
The EU’s Nature Restoration Law is “a generational opportunity to make a difference in how we look after nature,” writes Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin, chair of the Independent Advisory Committee for the Government’s forthcoming draft nature restoration plan. The committee’s proposals were launched, and generally strongly endorsed, by Minister for Nature Christopher O’Sullivan on Wednesday.Given that the Nature Restoration Law had a very controversial passage in scraping through EU institutions, and had very few friends in the agricultural sector here, these recommendations are a remarkable achievement.At present, 90 per cent of our protected habitats are in bad or unsatisfactory condition. The committee comes up with very comprehensive and convincing scenarios to meet the ambitious - and legally binding - requirements of the new law: restoring at least 20 per cent of our degraded land and sea habitats by 2030 and all of them by 2050.What makes these scenarios notable is that they were drawn up by a committee composed of farmers and fishermen as much as by environmentalists, informed also by almost 1,000 individuals in well-structured leaders’ forums and general community consultations across the country.READ MOREFive homes on view this week in Dublin and Wicklow from €525,000All largely civil on the campaign trail as councillors hope to win Dublin Central TD seat‘It’s absolutely disgraceful what’s going on’: Ballymun locals react after child discharges firearmLIV explainer: Where does Saudi withdrawal leave the tour and the players? So they arguably demonstrate a very strong national desire to undo the damage which has been done to our natural infrastructure if certain barriers are removed. One of these is the very poor communication of conservation legislation to rural communities in the past.Support for, and engagement with, farmers and fishermen, in which their real concerns are listened to and responded to, is one of the three pillars underlying the recommendations. Another pillar is financial. The committee insists that funding for restoration must be realistic and ring-fenced, and not eked out from different departmental and other schemes. Farmers and fishermen must be paid appropriately for restoration projects they engage in.The third pillar is that a key focus must be on public lands. Much of our national parks and designated conservation areas are in poor condition, and cry out for restoration. And the vast estates of Coillte and Bord na Móna offer extensive restoration opportunities which should be acted on.These recommendations are the first phase in the complex elaboration of a national restoration plan between Dublin, Brussels, and further public consultation by September 2027.“While the State is rarely lacking in ambition in developing plans,” the advisory committee tellingly reminds us, “it frequently falls down when it comes to implementation.” If nature really underpins our entire society and economy, as these recommendations cogently argue, we cannot afford to let that happen this time.
