We on this side of the House welcome this motion and, indeed, we support enthusiastically the fact that this country is a contracting party to the Ramsar Convention. In this country there are 52 known such sites and in the whole island, including Northern Ireland, there are 61 identified or designated sites. Yet, since we ratified the convention in November 1984 we have designated only 15 of the 52 major known wetland sites as wetlands of international importance. While the 15 sites that have been designated are all important sites in their own right, many of the more important sites in terms of their physical size and concentration of internationally important wild birds remain undesignated and are often threatened. If we accept the fundamental ecological function of wetlands as regulators of water regimes and as habitats supporting all kinds of flora and fauna, especially wild fowl, we must extend designation, protection and management to all these international wetlands within our own borders.
Our neglect of these areas and often our ignorance of their ecological importance have in recent years resulted in major encroachment and destruction of all or parts of highly important swamp-lands or wetlands on this island. This has happened to an alarming degree all over the developed and undeveloped world. We have often forgotten that such areas constitute places of high amenity and recreational value. We have forgotten all too often that wetland habitats are international resources, because the wild birds that inhabit them are usually migratory birds which move across several national boundaries in a life cycle that is truly one of the great marvels of natural life.
Alongside the Ramsar Convention we have the 1976 Wildlife Act, excellent legislation on nature conservation, yet its provisions have proved more aspirational than real because the Wildlife Service do not have the resources to enforce their protective measures. We have the EC Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds of 1979. This directive obliges each EC member state to protect several species of wild birds. Twenty-nine such species are found on this island. Under this directive we are obliged to establish special protection areas to maintain the populations of these birds at an appropriate level, yet we have only designated 15 such areas which must leave us close to being in breach of the regulations.
The other major gap in our policy is that while we have designated the wetland sites, that is all we have done and there is no follow-up in terms of protection and management of the areas. I would remind the Minister of Article 4 of the Ramsar Convention, paragraphs 3 to 5:
3. The Contracting Parties shall encourage research and the exchange of data and publications regarding wetlands and their flora and fauna.
4. The Contracting Parties shall endeavour through management to increase water-fowl populations on appropriate wetlands.
5. The Contracting Parties shall promote the training of personnel competent in the fields of wetland research, management and wardening.
We do not fulfil any of those obligations. We are also reminded under Article 6 of the Convention that:
By designating a wetland for inclusion in the List, a Government explicitly recognizes its international importance and obliges itself to ensure that its national planning is formulated and implemented in such a way that conservation of the listed wetland is promoted to the fullest.
Notwithstanding all of these obligations under the Ramsar Convention, under EC Directive 79/409 and under our Wildlife Act, 1976, we find a dump right beside one of the designated sites, the Rogerstown Estuary in North County Dublin and one of the most important habitats in these islands for Brent geese. The dump is clearly contaminating this most important site. This is a perfect example of what happens when we have no protection or management and an uncoordinated or insensitive planning permission policy which takes no account of the wildlife interest. Take, for instance, what happened in County Wexford in the Raven Nature Reserve. The Minister allowed limited shooting of Greenland white fronted geese some months ago. This was outrageous and rightly caused a national outcry.
We welcome the motion but these conventions and our participation in them are useless unless we honour them in the letter as well as in the spirit. We must never again have blots on our policy like the Rogerstown Estuary site and the Wexford Wildfowl Reserve licence to shoot.
I would like, finally, to pay tribute to the Irish Wild Bird Conservancy, a national voluntary organisation for the conservation of wild birds in their habitats. This voluntary organisation has done more nationally to awaken public awareness to what is happening to our wetlands and the need for urgent conservation and protection of each of the areas, than most of our official agencies. I have a recent publication issued by the Irish Wildbird Conservancy. It is an excellent publication which sets down the importance of our wetlands, their location what is happening and what we might be able to do to protect them.