The Irish Natura and Hill Farmers’ Association (INHFA) has claimed that suggestions that the proposed Nature Restoration Law will provide voluntary measures for farmers are “propaganda”.
INHFA president, Vincent Roddy, has called on politicians and stakeholders “to acquaint themselves” with the law and to “refrain from accepting misinformation as truth”.
A plenary (full) session of the European Parliament is set to vote on the final text of the law later this month, which will likely be the make-or-break vote in determining whether the law goes ahead or not.
According to Roddy, the law includes a “clear legal obligation on member states” to put actions in place to restore certain habitats.
He referred to article four of the proposed law, which states: “Member States shall put in place the restoration measures that are necessary to re-establish the habitat types listed in Annex I.”
Peaty-type soils are mentioned in a number of places in Annex I of the law. Rewetting of peat soils is cited as one way to meet the requirements of the law.
The INHFA president said that he is concerned over the possible impact the enforcement of the law will have on hill farming.
That concern, he said, “arises from a 2019 National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) report taking a view that 85% of these habitats are in unfavorable condition”.
“This view is one we would challenge on the basis that these are farm ecosystems which hasn’t been accounted for in this reporting. However, it will, under article four, compel the state to enact restoration measures.”
Roddy claimed that these restoration measures “will impact Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments and damage the reputational value of food produced from these lands”.
“The combination of such biased negative reports combined with a mandatory requirement within the Nature Restoration Law, if passed, to put in place restoration measures, places these farmers in an impossible position,” he added.
The INHFA president went on the claim that “the green lobby group” was imposing “utopian standards” on farmers.
“Such standards do not represent a just transition, rather, they epitomise an elitist agenda with unimaginable negative consequences for rural communities.
“There is no doubt that this law will be a key factor in planning applications and will undermine private and public infrastructure projects, driving rural decline and decimating our rural town and villages,” Roddy said.
He added that Ireland’s 13 MEPs in the European Parliament “have a crucial opportunity to oppose this unjust and poorly conceived law”, when the vote comes up later this month, calling on them to “not sign the death warrant of rural Ireland”.
There has been much discussion and controversy over the Nature Restoration Law, especially over the extent to which actions for nature restoration or rewetting will be voluntary for landowners.
While politicians and groups favouring the law have said that measures will be voluntary for farmers, farm groups are less certain.
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue said last week that, for delivering targets under the Nature Restoration Law for agricultural peat soils, the government here has “committed to utilising public lands as far as possible enhanced by voluntary supports for farmers who wish to contribute to the targets”.
In response to a parliamentary question from fellow Fianna Fáil TD Éamon Ó Cuív, Minister McConalogue said that voluntary mechanisms are “under consideration”.
Existing actions under the current CAP are considered to support progress towards the delivery of the Nature Restoration Law targets already, the minister said.