To mark World Wetlands Day tomorrow (Thursday, February 2), Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) with responsibility for land use and biodiversity, Pippa Hackett, visited the farm of Joe Roche, Ballinacarrig Farm, Balllymoney, Co. Wexford.
Joe is a dairy farmer, taking part in the Enhancing Biodiversity in the Ballymoney Stream Catchment (EIP) project funded by DAFM.
World Wetlands Day is celebrated each year on February 2, to raise awareness about wetlands.
This day also marks the anniversary of the Convention on Wetlands, which was adopted as an international treaty in 1971. This year the theme is restoration.
Globally, nearly 90% of the world’s wetlands have been degraded since the 1700s, and we are losing wetlands three times faster than forests, according to DAFM.
Yet, wetlands are critically important ecosystems that contribute to biodiversity, climate mitigation and adaptation, freshwater availability, local communities and economies and more.
World Wetlands Day
Joe Roche constructed a pond to slow the flow of water entering his stream.
He also restored a previously drained wetland area, which the stream flows through and converted ryegrass to multi-species sward, as well as managing stock access to a highly valuable wet woodland.
The combination of measures all carried out in one year, have significantly slowed the flow of water and boosted biodiversity. As the stream leaves Joe’s farm, it is at ‘Good Ecological Status’.
Further measures were taken on other partner lands before the stream enters Ballymoney beach.
This demonstrates that it is possible to achieve improvements in water quality, contribute to carbon storage and enhance biodiversity at the same time supporting a productive dairy enterprise, according to DAFM.
Concluding, the Minister said: “I was delighted to see first-hand the wetlands on Joe’s farm and to hear of the invaluable work that the EIP team are doing to increase people’s understanding of these critically important ecosystems.
“The Ballymoney EIP is a great example of a local community, both farmers and non-farmers, working together to benefit the environment.
“It is urgent this World Wetlands Day that we take the opportunity to raise national awareness about our wetlands so that we can encourage actions to reverse the loss of our wetlands, and to conserve and restore them.”
Wetlands
A wetland is an area of land that is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally, and where the water table is near or at the surface.
Wetlands may vary considerably in visual appearance, owing in part to the setting in which they occur and the vegetation types present.
There are special suites of plants adapted to cope with wet conditions and, as these wet conditions vary spatially, a mosaic of habitats comprising different plant communities may occur within a single wetland.
Ireland’s wetland habitats range from the very small (like a freshwater spring) to habitats which dominate the Irish landscape such as lakes, rivers and bogs.
They are home to a large diversity of plant and animal species and form an important network of ecological sites for many species on migration, according to DAFM.
The biodiversity of wetlands in Ireland has been estimated to be worth €385 million per year to the Irish economy and wetlands also contribute a component of the €330 million nature and eco-tourism value of Irish habitats.