Meeting with Minister Gormley over Biodiversity Needs

An Taisce with other ENGOs meet with Environment Minister Gormley over Biodiversity needs

WEB meets with Minister Gormley for the first time this week to

‘Halt the Loss of Biodiversity by 2010’

 3rd April 2008

WEB (Working and Educating for Biodiversity) met with Minister Gormley and representatives from the Department of Environment Heritage & Local Government and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries & Food on Tuesday 1^ST of April, calling for firm commitments relating to the prevention of biodiversity loss in Ireland. WEB is an alliance of Irish Conservation Groups – a united champion for conserving Ireland’s wildlife and habitats, and is part of a wider network of Ecological Environmental NGOs. WEB, whilst recognising the work that has been done by Government for biodiversity - stresses there is still much to do.

WEB highlighted a number of concerns relating to poor consideration of the natural environment in the planning process, the importance of knowing the condition of our important sites, habitats and species, the legal status of Natural Heritage Area’s, the need for a National Strategy for Wetlands and the incorporation of biodiversity concerns into the National Climate Change Strategy at the meeting.

An Taisce recently completed a report “Planning and Natura 2000’,  which highlights lackadaisical practices between local authorities and nature conservation agencies to planning regulation in our most highly regarded sites of conservation importance.  The report highlighted systemic failures in relation to planning procedures in nature conservation sites, including the lack of assessments of potential ecological impacts associated with planning applications in these special conservation sites.   Minister Gormley requested that officials within his own department respond to this report, and assured the groups that the findings of the study would be incorporated in to forthcoming review of Departmental Guidelines on Biodiversity in the planning process.  The report further highlights concerns about the level of protection afforded designated sites; an issue which was recently identified by the European Courts in a ruling against Ireland.

WEB called for Natural Heritage Area (NHA) legal protection without further delay and a timetable for this from the Department of Environment. WEB is extremely disappointed with the response from Government who do not see this as a priority area. In 1995, 630 proposed NHA’s were published by NPWS on a non-statutory basis but have yet to be designated. These sites are extremely important for the habitats, plants and animals they contain, and need urgent protection. “We are losing our biodiversity at an alarming rate and urgently need legal provisions to prevent further damage” say the groups. WEB is calling for NHA legal protection to become a priority for the department, which has so far failed in this regard.

The groups also called for a National Strategy for Wetlands in Ireland to protect small pockets of wetlands all over Ireland, which are currently being destroyed at an alarming rate.  Waste licences are being granted by Local Authorities which turn locally valuable wetland habitats in to dumps for builder’s rubble.  Agricultural infilling is still being supported by Teagasc without any assessment of ecological implications. The NRA continues to dump spoil material from road construction projects in precious wetland habitats. Wetlands perform a host of valuable functions like water filtration and purification, flood control, and are critical for the conservation of biodiversity and climate control. “A National Strategy needs to be drawn up and implemented before there is nothing left to protect” said a spokesperson for the groups. 

WEB urged the Department of the Environment to incorporate natural environment considerations into the National Climate Change Strategy. The groups highlighted that national emission recordings should include peat extraction, which releases large quantities of Greenhouse Gasses in to the atmosphere. “The natural environment plays a vital role in protecting us from the worst impacts of climate change” say the groups, providing services such as flood mitigation, coastal defences, climatic regulation, and carbon sequestration.  The natural environment is core to solutions relating to climate change mitigation and adaptation, and the department accepted that there is much work to be done in this regard. 

WEB believes that natural environment considerations need to be integrated into the workings of all government departments and agencies who’s remit involve natural resources, wildlife and sustainable development on land and at sea. WEB looks forward to firm commitments from all Government Departments relating to the prevention of biodiversity loss and will continue push for these issues to be addressed.

ENDS