The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) has said it is “appalled” that the Wildlife (Amendment) Bill 2016 is set to be passed by the Oireachtas this evening (Wednesday, July 5).
Minister of State for heritage and electoral reform, Malcolm Noonan, has said his intention for the bill is to put the National Biodiversity Action Plan “on a statutory footing and introduce stronger biodiversity responsibilities for public bodies”.
But the IWT believes the bill will allow for the removal of legal protections from up to 46 sites – which are currently protected as Natural Heritage Areas (NHA) because of their raised bog habitats.
According to the IWT the government’s Climate Action Plan underlined a commitment to “restoring and rewetting NHAs”.
It has now queried how the government can “be moving to remove protections when this is exactly the opposite of what needs to be done”.
The trust also stated that while the decision was made in light of wider measures under the National Peatlands Strategy more than a decade ago in order to attain “favourable status” for raised bogs, “the demands of the climate and biodiversity emergency now demand a rethink”.
Wildlife bill
The Minister of State for heritage and electoral reform has previously said that the Wildlife (Amendment) Bill 2016 “will significantly enhance Ireland’s ability to implement biodiversity action across the country”.
Minister Noonan has said: “This reconfiguration of the network of nationally protected raised bogs will help achieve national conservation objectives for this important habitat.”
He also added that this “can have enormous value for biodiversity, as well as carbon sequestration and storage, water purification and flood mitigation”.
But the IWT believes the introduction of the bill sends a signal that the government is “not serious” about making changes needed for climate change and biodiversity.
IWT campaign officer Pádraic Fogarty said: “When we know we need to protect all of our peatlands for the climate, biodiversity and water benefits they bring, it’s impossible to understand how the government feels that promoting more peat mining is the right thing to be doing.”