The EU’s proposed Nature Restoration Law has been described as “legally unsound” in fresh criticism of the plan from the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers’ Association (INHFA).
According to the association’s president, Vincent Roddy, the proposed law would threaten the economic viability of thousands of farm families and rural communities.
For that reason, Roddy has called for all legal aspects of the proposal “to be fully explored to ensure they comply with EU law” as defined under the various EU treaties.
According to the INHFA, the nature restoration proposal will leave farmers in a “double bind” through rewilding and rewetting.
The plan could see as much as 300,000ha of drained peatland rewetted, something that the INHFA has frequently outlined major concerns on.
Roddy said this morning (Wednesday, April 5) that the law would “undermine farming activity across our hills and leave them ineligible for CAP [Common Agricultural Policy] payments”.
The INHFA president said that the science on any benefit to rewetting is “far from final”.
“While there are some that see a major carbon windfall through the reduction of emissions from the rewetting of drained peatland, there is a major drawback in terms of methane released,” he added.
He cited a recent report from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which, according to Roddy, showed that, under certain scenarios, any benefit obtained through reducing carbon emissions would be offset by the release of methane that would continue long after the rewetting process.
“It is vital that the science is relevant to the country and land type. Currently the science used to support rewetting on farmland is based on international studies,” he said.
Roddy said that no action should be taken until findings are known from studies already underway on Irish farmed peatland.
“The findings from these studies are possibly two years away but could provide a valuable counterbalance to the existing view around the management of these lands,” he said.
On rewilding, Roddy claimed that the restoration law proposal is “using the exact same language detailed in the EU Biodiversity Strategy” to describe a new land designations known as “strictly protected”.
This new designation would “see all human activity cease” on this land, according to the INHFA president.