Written Answers - Natura 2000.
John Gormley
Question:
113
Mr. Gormley
asked the
Minister for the Environment and Local Government
the anticipated expenditure on management of Natura 2000 sites from January 2003 to December 2012; the capital costs total for 10 years in millions of Euro; the number of Natura 2000 sites; the area covered by sites per hectare; the area details of the management planning and administration; the position regarding ongoing management; the planned actions and incentives in this regard; and the breakdown of all proposed expenditure, other than capital costs.
[8635/03]
Such an estimate for the period to 2012 has not been compiled by my Department. Expenditure on the management of Natura 2000 sites is incurred by a number of Departments. In addition, my Department's expenditure on such sites is not separately indicated in all cases under current accounting arrangements; nor has the capital cost of sites acquired by my Department been depreciated over the period mentioned in the question.
Protection of Natura 2000 sites is provided principally through regulation of use and assessment of proposed developments by the appropriate authorities, and the costs relevant to this regulation relate mainly to staffing. In many cases, conservation of Natura 2000 sites in private ownership is achieved by a continuation of existing practices which does not involve increased costs to land owners. Where restrictions are imposed by my Department which result in actual losses to a land owner, compensation is payable. The estimate for compensation payments of this kind in 2003 is €2 million in capital expenditure and €5 million in current expenditure. Similar figures are anticipated for future years. As an alter native to these payments, compensation for environmentally friendly farming is available in appropriate cases from the Department of Agriculture and Food through the REP scheme.
My Department has provided a sum of €300,000 in 2003 for development of conservation management plans for Natura 2000 sites. Some 118 regional management staff and 26 scientific staff in Dublin together with administrative staff are employed primarily on conservation of Natura 2000 sites, although they also have other conservation duties. My Department's financial management systems do not currently allow separate identification of the annual cost of the time devoted to Natura 2000 sites.
A recent study at EU level, under the auspices of the habitats committee, produced a tentative estimate in the range of €34 billion to €57 billion as the cost of managing Natura 2000 sites, measuring a total of 60.5 million hectares in existing member states, over a period of ten years. This gives an average annual cost of at least €56 per hectare. That figure would cover expenditure on management planning and administration, ongoing management actions, including compensation measures and incentives to land owners and managers, and occasional works necessary for restoration or improvement of sites. The figure of €56 per hectare is considerably less than the basic rate of REPS and is indeed less than the top-up paid in Natura 2000 areas.
The Natura 2000 suite of sites in Ireland comprise special areas of conservation, SACs, under the EU habitats directive and special protection areas, SPAs, under the EU birds directive. To date Ireland has designated 110 SPAs and submitted 364 candidate SACs to the European Commission, and a further 25 SPAs and 24 SACs have been formally proposed for designation for public consultation. These SAC and SPA designations and proposals overlap to some extent but in total, including marine areas, cover slightly over 1 million hectares.
