The final report of the Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss has highlighted the failure of the State to adequately fund, implement and enforce existing laws and directives to protect biodiversity and nature.
It has also recommend a referendum to insert biodiversity and nature protection in the Constitution and confer environmental rights for both people and nature.
The assembly's 99 members and chair were asked last year to assess how the State could improve its response to biodiversity loss.
After listening to presentations from 80 leading experts, and debating and deliberating the matter for months, they point the finger of blame at the Government.
The report says the State needs to properly enforce all existing biodiversity-related legislation and directives; that it needs to adequately fund, resource and hold to account the agencies and State bodies responsible for biodiversity protection; and make those responsibilities crystal clear.
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For people, the constitutional amendment, if passed in a referendum, would confer a right to a clean, healthy, safe environment; a right to a stable and healthy climate; and the rights of future generations to these or other environmental rights.
It would also confer rights regarding access to environmental information, public participation in environmental decision-making and justice in environmental matters.
For nature, the proposed constitutional change would recognise nature as a holder of legal rights, comparable to companies or people.
This might include the right for nature to exist, to flourish and perpetuate, and the right to restoration if degraded.
It would also give nature the right not to be polluted or harmed or degraded.
In addition, it would include the right of nature to be a party in administrative decision-making, litigation and other situations where rights of nature and biodiversity are impacted or likely to be impacted.
IFA have serious concerns over recommendations
The Irish Farmers Association said it has serious concerns about the potential impact of some of the recommendations in the report
Among the organisation's concerns is a recommendation to introduce a sector-specific levy or charge on agricultural exports.
IFA president Tim Cullinan said such a levy would be counterproductive.
He said: "The idea of placing a levy or charge on agricultural exports from our largest indigenous industry is outlandish in my view.
"It will be counter-productive and also seeks to place the cost burden of dealing with challenges relating to biodiversity squarely on the shoulders of farmers."
Mr Cullinan added: "Any levy or charge that is placed on food production ends up being carried by the farmer.
"We already have a situation where our horticultural sector is in terminal decline due to how Irish retailers have squeezed margins.
"These proposed levies will be just another tax on farmers and will do nothing to improve biodiversity."
He also took issue with recommendations to phase out "environmentally harmful subsidies in the agricultural and food sector."
Mr Cullinan said: "The report seems to imply that current State and European funding to agriculture is environmentally harmful.
"This is simply not the case and it doesn’t take into account the ever-increasing environmental regulations that farmers have to comply with. CAP subsidies protect family farm incomes, support the rural economy and protect rural landscapes."
He added: "The average farm size in Ireland is fewer than 80 acres, removing agricultural supports would lead to the exit of thousands of farmers from rural Ireland."
'Authentically green'
Dr Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin, Chair of the Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity said that if today's report is enacted, it gives Ireland the opportunity to be "authentically green".
She said that it was time to enact the laws and policies we have, as well as EU and international laws and that will go a long way to protect biodiversity. She said that the blame was not just on this Government but has been happening over decades, as historically people did not think nature needed protecting.
She said that Ireland was at a tipping point and it was time to act for fresh water and soil. She said that previously, Ireland had 500 pristine rivers, but there are just 32 today and that is "really stark" as it is fundamental to who we are.
Dr Ní Shúilleabháin said farmers want to pass the land on to the next generation in good health, but it is policies that have not supported farmers to assist nature and that is what they need now.
She said she did not want to see people on opposite ends shouting at each other from the extremes as nature is being degraded due to choices being made as humans.
She added that if we eat as much meat as we do and continue to degrade soil and waters, biodiversity loss is just a fact to accept so it was now about starting the conversation and addressing the issues.
On a potential constitutional amendment, she suggested that the wording mirror what the UN recommends - that everyone should be entitled to a clean healthy safe environment, such as clean water and unpolluted land.
She also suggested that nature should be given the same rights as a company, or be held to the same types of laws that govern companies.
Dr Ní Shúilleabháin said the Taoiseach has given a guarantee that the report will go before the Oireachtas before summer recess and will have a response before the end of the year.
The following are the main overarching recommendations included in the final report of the Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity loss published this morning.
There are 159 recommendations in all but year are described as the overarching recommendations.
Overarching Recommendations
The Assembly believes that the State's response to the biodiversity crisis requires effective leadership, clear vison and an enabling environment for action.
The response to conserving and restoring biodiversity should take into account the integral heritage and cultural values of our natural world.
1 The State must take prompt, decisive and urgent action to address biodiversity loss and restoration and must provide leadership in protecting Ireland’s biodiversity for future generations.
2 The Assembly believes that the State has comprehensively failed to adequately fund, implement and enforce existing national legislation, national policies, EU biodiversity-related laws and directives related to biodiversity. This must change.
3 The ambition of the State needs to be significantly increased to reflect the scale of Ireland’s biodiversity crisis. Adequate funding must be made available to address this crisis. This is likely to require substantial and sustained increases in expenditure, which should be made available immediately and guaranteed in the long term.
4 The responsibility for the implementation and enforcement of biodiversity related legislation, directives and policies by all state bodies and agencies must be made clear, with each body/agency held publicly accountable for their performance. This should be supported by an independent review of implementation and enforcement of biodiversity related legislation, directives and policies.
5 The State must provide, communicate and implement a plan for the conservation and restoration of biodiversity for the benefit of its people.
6 Local leadership, local communities and the activities of the Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) sector must be actively developed and resourced to assist the State in addressing the biodiversity crisis.
7 In taking action to protect and restore biodiversity, nature-based solutions aimed at protecting, sustainably managing and restoring ecosystems should be prioritised where possible.
8 As a matter of urgency areas and species of High Nature Value, including but not limited to the national network of Natura 2000 sites and protected species, should be protected from further degradation through the implementation and enforcement of existing legislation and directives. Management plans should also include restoration programmes.
9 Ireland’s varied land and seascapes across and around the island must be supported, and appropriate monitoring systems designed to suit their local environment. Higher incentives and supports should be provided to prioritise the preservation and restoration of rare and threatened species.
10 Ireland needs to recognise its global responsibility, including through our local actions, in terms of our consumerism, resource usage and our international biodiversity responsibilities. The State should advocate for a shift in emphasis in EU and international economic policy away from GDP expansion as a goal in itself and towards the goals of societal and ecological well-being.
11 An all-island approach and wider transboundary approach should be taken into consideration with regard to biodiversity conservation and restoration.
12 The State should renew and stand by its commitment to implement the objectives and targets of the EU 2030 Biodiversity Strategy and play a leading and supportive role in the adoption and implementation of a new EU Nature Restoration Regulation.
13 All governmental departments must explicitly acknowledge the State’s declaration of a Biodiversity Emergency and take immediate and targeted action.
14 All biodiversity incentives and grants should be results-based, supported by monitoring and evaluation.
15 People in primary production industries should implement practices that conserve biodiversity and be incentivised for biodiversity enhancement and associated ecosystem service provision.
16 The State must work with all stakeholders to review Ireland’s current food policy in the context of the biodiversity crisis, particularly in agriculture and marine sectors, to balance between the affordability and quality of food. This review must take into consideration vulnerable sections of the population and ensure reasonable standards of living, and result in a plan to address these issues.
17 The Irish business community needs to engage with biodiversity and show leadership in the same way that they have begun to engage with the issue of the climate crisis.
18 In order to drastically reduce the use of pesticides by at least 50% by 2030 in line with EU policy, the State should incentivise and encourage the domestic and commercial use of natural, cost friendly alternatives, sustainable practices and biodiversity-friendly solutions. It should also regulate the use of chemical pesticides and fertilisers, while maintaining food security. This should coincide with the improvement of schemes for the safe disposal of unused hazardous materials, as well as their containers.
19 Examples of good practice in relation to biodiversity protection and enhancement should be actively identified and supported with funding, infrastructure and other supports provided to enable replication or expansion of these practices, in partnership with those who design and operate such initiatives and schemes, e.g. the Burren Programme, Biodiversity Regeneration In a Dairying Environment (BRIDE) programme. and the Sustainable Uplands Agri-environment Scheme (SUAS).
20 The State is urged to take into account the recommendations from the Children and Young People’s Assembly on Biodiversity Loss, an initiative featuring our next generation, and continue to engage with children and young people on the environment.
