The Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) has issued a last minute plea to the European Commission to carry out further engagement with stakeholders on the Nature Restoration Law.
The call comes as the wording for the controversial law may be finalised at a meeting today (Thursday, November 9), following discussions between the commission, the EU Parliament and EU Council.
Once negotiations have concluded at EU level, the law will go before national governments, including Ireland, which will then start their own stakeholder consultation process.
Member states will be required to design their own restoration plan as part of this process.
Nature Restoration Law
The INHFA has written to the EU Commission outlining how it believes the Nature Restoration Law will have a major impact on farming and rural communities.
The letter states that “despite support for the law from Irish MEPs and Irish government ministers there is no support for this law in the farming community”.
The INHFA drew comparisons with directives which saw land designated through the Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) and Special Protected Areas (SPA).
“These directives were imposed on lands without consultation and have consequently failed in these objectives.
“This failure was a direct consequence of a dictatorial approach from the Irish State which was facilitated by the European Union.
“25 years later it is deeply troubling that both the Irish State and European Union are about to repeat these mistakes,” the letter said.
INHFA
The INHFA stressed that farmer support is “essential” and warned that if this is not achieved the implementation of the new law “will be very difficult, if not impossible”.
INHFA president Vincent Roddy also claimed that the law, as currently constructed, is a direct threat to Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments.
“For this reason, it is vital that safeguards are included to ensure land subject to the law will not lose its agricultural area status which is a requirement in order for lands to be eligible for CAP payments,” he said.
The INHFA president called for a footnote to be included under Article 4 of the Nature Restoration Law.
“This footnote is aimed at High Nature Value Agricultural Ecosystems (HNV) that are contributing to Article 4 targets and details the need for these areas to be maintained under current and future agricultural and environmental operational programmes to ensure such habitats can be maintained,” Roddy said.
“It is vital that farmers and rural communities are not sacrificed by EU institutions anxious to have a good news story for the United Nations (UN) climate change conference later this month,” he added.