The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has described the provisional agreement reached between the European Parliament and the Council on the Nature Restoration Law as “disappointing and worrying”.
Paul O’Brien, IFA’s Environmental chair, said that there will be a level of concern over the inclusion of ecosystem-specific obligations, including requirements that member states put certain measures in place in relation to agriculture systems.
The Council of EU has highlighted that there will be “flexibility” for member states in relation to a requirement to rewet peatlands – because “some will be disproportionately impacted by these obligations” – but O’Brien maintains that the re-introduction of “Article 9” in the regulations will have “an impact on farm families”.
“Even with the amendments proposed, which sees the targets for rewetting drained peatland in agricultural use reduced and voluntary rewetting targets for farmers, the proposed law will impact production.
“It is clear that the European Parliament’s lead negotiator from the Environment Committee, César Luena, ignored the mandate of the Parliament,” O’Brien said.
Nature Restoration Law
According to the IFA under the newly agreed text, Ireland will be required to put in place restoration measures for organic soils in agricultural use “on at least 30% of this land by 2030, with at least 25% of the area to be rewetted”.
“This increases to 50% by 2050, with at least 33% of the area are to be rewetted,” the IFA stated.
The farm organisation said it believes the potential impact on food production “is recognised in the text with the introduction of an emergency brake for agricultural ecosystems targets, so that the targets can be suspended under exceptional circumstances”.
O’Brien has stressed that Irish farmers support the restoration of nature, “but in order to deliver for nature we need to fully understand the impact of the proposed targets”.
He warned that farmers “must not be castigated for feeling that Europe is walking blindly into these targets without fully understanding the consequences.
“From the outset, IFA called for a full impact assessment to be undertaken at member state level to understand the area of farmland impacted and the potential impact on food production before the law is introduced.
“The commitment to restore 90% of habitat types by 2050 and the requirement to show continuous improvement in the quality of habitats shows the scale of the impact and challenge for farmers and the rural community,” O’Brien added.