We welcome Mr. John Murphy and Dr. Stephen Newton to the committee. I draw attention to the fact that while members of the committee have absolute privilege, the same privilege does not apply to witnesses appearing before it. While it is generally accepted that witnesses would have qualified privilege, the committee cannot guarantee any level of privilege to witnesses appearing before it. Members are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that members should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person outside the House, or an official, either by name in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.
BirdWatch Ireland: Presentation.
Mr. John Murphy
Thank you, Chairman. My colleague is Dr. Stephen Newton. I will work from a script in the interest of efficiency and in deference to my hard working former colleagues in the Debates Office.
BirdWatch Ireland is the Irish member of the organisation of the BirdLife International partnership, which promotes the conservation of birds and their habitats at European and global levels. We welcome the opportunity to make this submission to the joint committee on nature conservation priorities during Ireland's EU Presidency. Our presentation today will summarise the main features of the following briefing papers already supplied to the committee secretariat: Greening Europe, which outlines the priorities of BirdLife International at European level; Financing Natura 2000, an EU environmental NGO position paper; and a BirdWatch Ireland briefing note on conservation priorities at national level.
I will give a very brief description of BirdWatch Ireland, an independent voluntary organisation with a membership of approximately 10,000. We work for the conservation of Ireland's bird species and their habitats through various research, survey and conservation projects. Apart from the importance of that work in its own right, it is well recognised that trends in bird species populations are an important indicator of what is happening to the wider environment. BirdWatch Ireland employs a full-time staff of 15 and a similar number on short-term seasonal fieldwork. In addition to our core funding from membership subscriptions, BirdWatch Ireland projects are supported by funding from the European Commission, the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government, the Department of Agriculture and Food, and the Heritage Council.
Our work involves liaison with Departments and other State agencies as well as with other environmental NGOs. Because many of our survey and conservation projects involve access to farmland, we have developed a close working relationship with the IFA and other farming bodies. We regard the conservation of biodiversity as an important aspect of maintaining and improving the quality of people's lives. We recognise the obvious fact that people are an integral part of a living countryside and we strongly support policies aimed at sustainable rural development. We particularly acknowledge the role of the farming community in the management of the countryside and welcome the increasing emphasis which is now being placed on that aspect of farming activity.
The Greening Europe document, produced jointly by BirdLife International and BirdWatch Ireland, proposed the following priorities on nature conservation policy issues for attention during the Irish Presidency. In the context of EU enlargement, the celebrations to welcome ten new member states will be held in Ireland next month. This historic event should also celebrate the rich natural heritage that these countries bring with them. The Irish Presidency needs to ensure that the natural heritage of these countries is fully protected through the full implementation of EU nature conservation legislation and effective policy integration. This involves transposing the EU birds and habitats directives into the national legislation of the accession countries and pressing ahead with the establishment of their Natura 2000 networks.
The Irish Presidency should encourage the EU member states to seize the opportunities provided by the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy since June 2003 to adapt agricultural practices to the challenges of enlargement and the avoidance of environmental degradation. It should also encourage the adoption of rural development plans that bring about a truly sustainable rural development, with adequate funding for agri-environment schemes, especially in the new member countries.
Successful implementation of the current CAP reforms in the existing member states involves the adaptation of rural development plans, decoupling of subsidies from production; on which Ireland has already led the way; and pursuing a consistent agricultural policy which helps farmers, protects the environment and supports rural areas. It is essential to encourage adoption by the accession countries of rural development plans that safeguard sustainable rural development, with higher funding for targeted agri-environment schemes. The protection of the environment and biodiversity must play an integral part in the accession process.
The year 2004 is the 25th anniversary of the EU birds directive of 1979. It is important that the successes of this directive are built upon and celebrated. BirdLife International urges the Irish Government to pursue a programme to establish a dedicated fund aimed at encouraging the positive and active management of the Natura 2000 network of areas of special conservation value. This network aims to protect threatened wildlife and habitats across the EU.
As the legal establishment of the Natura 2000 network approaches, the focus now moves towards resolving the long-term management and protection of this network. It is essential to secure adequate financial resources to achieve this. In 2002 the European Commission established a working group on Article 8 of the habitats directive concerning financing. That group published a report outlining three options for the financing of Natura 2000: the use of existing EU funding instruments, such as CAP or regional funds; the expansion of the LIFE Nature fund; and the establishment of a new independent, dedicated Natura 2000 fund.
Although these were presented in the report as distinct alternatives, the effective co-financing of Natura 2000 requires a combination of all three options, having regard to the objective of the EU sustainable development strategy of halting biodiversity decline by 2010. We would urge the Irish Presidency to pursue that approach.
While the Government pursues its EU Presidency agenda, some conservation issues at national level continue to require ongoing attention. While Ireland enjoys a relatively high environmental quality relative to other European member states, the Irish environment has suffered some negative impacts including a decline in biodiversity in the wider countryside. Birds are useful indicators of sustainable development, being particularly sensitive to environmental change. Currently, 18 species of Irish birds are red listed, meaning their populations have declined by more than 50% in the last 25 years.
BirdWatch Ireland advocates Government action to fully implement the national biodiversity plan and provide adequate funding to create a stakeholder forum to oversee that process. Detailed management plans must be implemented for each Natura 2000 site. The Government should ensure that the Natura 2000 network receives adequate funding, particularly to develop incentive-based schemes to reward landowners for positive, active management and to improve communication, consultation and awareness.
In the context of the mid-term review of the rural environment protection scheme, or REPS, conservation measures should be precisely targeted to cover a range of wider countryside biodiversity issues. It is important that adequate monitoring is introduced to demonstrate that the REPS measures truly deliver environmental benefits. A REPS consultative forum should be established to improve consultation with all relevant interests including the farming and conservation NGOs. My colleague, Dr. Stephen Newton, may wish to comment further on the destination process.
Dr. Stephen Newton
My colleague, Mr. Murphy, has outlined a scenario in which we are fairly well advanced on the Natura 2000 network of special protection areas and special areas of conservation. My view is that we are not as far advanced as we would like to think we are. We have yet to identify and designate many sites. This work must be accelerated given that we are supposed to be leading Europe over the six months of the Presidency.
We are still woefully short of designated sites for dispersed species, which constitute possibly half the species we should be focusing attention on in the bird field. Many of these species are way out at sea but there is no work being carried out by the national parks and wildlife service to identify marine sites. I reiterate that we feel there should be a great increase in the resources given to the national parks and wildlife service within the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to allow this work to be done. Our worry is that we are beginning to see developments in places which should qualify as European sites of nature conservation in the off-shore environment. It is the developers which are gathering the data which identifies these sites. It almost puts us on the back foot. Our role should be to steer developers away from sensitive sites, but we do not know where they are while they are picking their sites according to the criteria of their industries. This is one of the conundrums the committee should note. We need more resources to fund better survey work. I am aware that the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources has a major research effort in the off-shore sphere, but nature conservation is, unfortunately, relatively low on its list of priorities. The Department is more concerned with exploitable resources and fisheries issues.
We are woefully behind in our work. The birds directive has been in place for 20 years, though we have had not quite so long with the habitats directive. We still have a great deal to do when, in theory, we should be helping the ten new member states through the process.
Can Dr. Newton outline the 18 species of Irish birds which are red listed? Are they common birds?
Dr. Newton
I have a list I can circulate. About half are common species and the rest are what we consider normally to be rare. The latter include the hen harrier, of which there are only about 120 pairs in the country. Some species were formerly very abundant, common passerine birds living in hedgerows.
We discussed the hen harrier in some detail at a previous meeting and are quite familiar with it.
There are some EU states, such as France, in which one would not see a bird during a day's travel. When I made enquiries during my visit there, I was told they shoot everything there. Do the same conservation regulations not apply in such states as are applied as a matter of common sense here?
Dr. Newton
Some member states are seeking derogations to allow what we consider to be unsustainable hunting. Such derogations would specifically refer to hunting during the spring migration period, which is under way at present. Birds are coming from their African wintering quarters through continental Europe to Britain and Ireland. There are many places, including the accession countries of Malta and Cyprus, where a vast amount of hunting and trapping of migratory birds takes place. BirdLife International campaigns very strongly against this. I agree that there are deficiencies in the manner in which the birds directive is applied in states like France which have long been on board.
Mr. Murphy
Deputy McCormack's observation might have something to do with the time of year. Birds are particularly visible during the breeding season, but less so at other times. During an active migration period they are also more visible. There is a more extensive list of huntable species in France, Italy and other southern European countries than is the case in Ireland. There is probably a more responsible approach here.
Is BirdWatch striving for an overall EU policy to implement the same directive in all member states or will more restrictive regulations apply in countries which are far more liberal than Ireland in what they allow?
Mr. Murphy
There is national discretion as to which species are included on the hunting list. Apparently, there is a long tradition in some continental countries of including species we would not contemplate placing on a shooting list. These include blackbirds, thrushes and similar birds.
I get the impression from both presentations that there is not a critical situation in Ireland in terms of bird conservation. While there are actions we must take, Dr. Newton and Mr. Murphy do not consider matters to be alarming or critical.
The delegates stated that they supported policies aimed at sustainable rural development, something with which we would all concur. What is their assessment from a bird conservation perspective of the recently published guidelines on rural housing?
Mr. Murphy
To comment briefly on the Deputy's first point, certain species are certainly in a critical situation. Dr. Newton can elaborate more fully on that. There are species which are severely threatened, the outstanding example being the corncrake in respect of which BirdWatch Ireland operates a special scheme of grants to encourage farmers to operate in a conservation friendly manner by delaying mowing etc. There are other species which are not so visibly threatened but which are certainly under threat. It is a well recognised fact that the intensification of farming in the run up to EU accession in the early 1970s and subsequently had quite a negative effect on nature conservation. Fortunately, that is in the process of being turned around through the rural environment protection scheme and other initiatives. I hope that throws some light on the matter.
The rural housing initiative does not really have major implications for bird conservation. Birdwatch Ireland's position on that issue is not as strong as that of one or two other conservation organisations.
Dr. Newton
There are a few species that are fairly threatened in Ireland regarding which housing might be an issue. One is the red-throated diver. We may have only four or ten pairs, all of which nest around very small lakes in Donegal. There are certainly some insensitive house placements under way in the region, about which we are quite concerned. Many of these are actually outside Glenveagh National Park and therefore the national parks and wildlife service may have trouble stamping its authority on the local authority in those sorts of areas. With only one pair nesting on one lough there is not much the service can do in terms of using the argument that this pair comprises a large part of the European population. However, we only have a handful of pairs within Ireland.
What Ireland is really internationally renowned for is its breeding seabird colonies. They are not really threatened and are fairly safe on sea cliffs and offshore islands. We have many wild geese coming from Greenland and Iceland to visit us in the winter. Quite often they are concentrated on reserves, such as the Wexford slobs, and are not really under any pressure. We are most concerned about the farmland birds that are widely dispersed throughout the countryside. It is quite frightening that one has become extinct in Ireland in the past ten or 20 years. There are a couple of others hovering on the verge of extinction, one of which is the grey partridge, which is down to one or two pairs on some of the Offaly bogs. Therefore, there are still things amiss in the farming environment although the position on many of the more common hedgerow birds is reasonably good compared with that in Britain, where some thrushes have been red-listed.
I declare my interest having been a member of Birdwatch Ireland for many years. I compliment the organisation on its work, particularly Wings magazine, which serves as a very useful touchstone and resource for legislators and those of us interested in biodiversity issues generally.
I am obviously familiar with Rogerstown estuary, Broadmeadown, Rockabill and Lambay in my constituency. The issue of wind energy has been raised from time to time, and the issue of the hen harrier has probably been raised in that context. Having gone around the country, I know of fatalities arising from collisions with overhead wires. Recently, I heard of an incident in which a peregrine falcon was brought down in this way. Is there a way in which the concerns sometimes expressed by those who have fears about wind turbines can be addressed in order that the wind industry in Ireland does not always have to look over its shoulder at particular conflicts of interest?
One of the major biodiversity threats concerns the loss of hedgerows. This is sometimes due to housing - urban-based housing quite often. The creation of a stakeholder forum to oversee the implementation of a national biodiversity plan is one of the delegates' recommendations. Can they make any headway with local authorities, particularly regarding the development of plans, to establish the need for wildlife corridors, for want of a better phrase, or green highways as they are called in the United States?
A call has been made by the National Association of Regional Game Councils for shooting to be allowed on State lands. Has Birdwatch Ireland made its position on this clear? I know the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is opposed to it. I believe about 2% of land is in question.
When Birdwatch Ireland speaks about national parks and wildlife needing resources, we can all connect with it. Do the delegates have more detailed information in this regard? I have heard comments regularly on the Natura 2000 programme and on the fact that people have been waiting 25 years for the implementation of the birds directive. Can the delegates quantify how the €50,000 to be spent on electronic voting might do the job for the Natura 2000 programme, for example?
Dr. Newton
On the wind energy question, we have been campaigning quite widely. One will have read quite a lot of our views in Wings magazine, copies of which can be presented to the committee if necessary. We are quite heartened by the response of some county councils in making zonation plans, etc., for their counties. Westmeath County Council serves as a recent example. A county such as Westmeath, which is in a fairly flat part of the middle of the country, tends to have what the wind energy people consider a fairly poor resource, although that resource is still way ahead of the average in continental Europe.
Part of the problem is that the wind energy developers claim they must go to the very windiest sites on the tops of the mountains, the headlands of the west coast or the offshore banks on the east coast because they lack Government support to get these very capital-intensive projects up and running. They claim this although there is still a lot of wind in the rest of the country. From Birdwatch Ireland's point of view, one region we would like to see developers target, maybe with a little Government support in some form, consists of the cut-away bogs in the midlands. These are already fairly devastated black landscapes in which electricity has been generated over the past 20 or 30 years. It is very sensible that such sites should be harvested for their wind resources and that bogs be rehabilitated in some way. Thus we would have a much better working environment and green energy at the same time. I would rather see wind energy developed in this region than offshore, such as off the east coast, where it is very hard to work out the effects.
We appreciate the difficulties for the consultants doing environmental impact assessments. It is very hard to monitor whether there is any mortality attributable to the turbines in such locations. Although this is very hard to assess, it is also very hard to assess the disturbance effect, namely, the loss of habitat by putting moving structures into what was formerly a fairly open environment.
My best bet would be to try to steer the development of wind energy to cut-away bogs and general farmland in the middle of the country and away from the unenclosed lands on the mountains of the west coasts, where virtually all of our European conservation sites are located.
Mr. Murphy
Hedgerows are certainly a vitally important aspect of nature conservation in Ireland, one reason being our lack of the sort of broadleaf woodland which is more common in Britain and some of the continental countries. There have certainly been major problems with the approach of local authorities to roadside hedge maintenance. There had been a tendency to opt for a short back and sides or even a crew-cut when a more natural, conservation-friendly state would be much more appropriate. This is a particularly difficult area because local authorities have certain concerns about road safety, sight lines and the avoidance of overhanging trees. However, we suggest that a much less drastic approach is appropriate.
Unfortunately, in the early stages of the rural environment protection scheme, there was some misunderstanding as to what maintaining one's hedgerows meant. There was a tendency to interpret it in terms of maintaining them in a neat and tidy fashion rather than a wildlife-friendly fashion. That has been gradually changed and REPS is now achieving results in terms of hedgerow conservation. In the next phase of REPS - REPS 3 - there will be specific measures aimed at hedgerow conservation which will further improve that process.
The issue of shooting has been highlighted by the NARGC as an issue between itself and the national parks and wildlife section of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. There are strong positions on either side. We have good working relations with both the NARGC and the Department. Since it has become a public issue, we would prefer not to take a position on it, except to say that we do not see shooting as a threat to wildlife if it is properly controlled and managed.
I acknowledge that much of the valuable conservation work in the countryside is done by members of the NARGC and its local gun clubs. We do not have an issue with shooting as such, but in regard to State lands we would prefer to leave the NARGC and the Government to sort out that one. I do not necessarily agree with the approach of threatening certain voting tactics as part of that scheme, but that is a matter for my friends in the NARGC.
What amount of funding does the national parks and wildlife service require? Is there any figure?
Dr. Newton
Mr. Murphy might be better equipped to deal with numbers, but the service is still woefully inadequate, although there has been a significant recruitment of new rangers into the service over the past five years. It still cannot get a full quota of people under the structure they want at the moment. The hen harriers situation has shown how poorly the service is equipped to deal with big public relations exercises. There is a need to double the number of people on the ground talking to farmers on an every day basis.
I am also interested in the matter of designations. I work closely with people in the research department in NPWS which always comes out with some interesting comparisons with colleagues in the Countryside Council for Wales or Scottish Natural Heritage. In both of those organisations there is in the order of 20 or 30 people working on European designations. In contrast, we have one or two, which puts it in perspective.
One or two?
Dr. Newton
Certainly for birds there is only one. On SACs there is a bigger input from the rest of the research department. There has been a one-man show on the designation of special protection areas for birds, while in SNH there are 20 or 30 people working on the same sorts of issues. That indicates a gross under-resourcing of the department.
Mr. Murphy
I do not have a precise figure as to the amount of additional funding that would be necessary. Perhaps we can come back on that one. It is evident that some of the problems that the national parks and wildlife service is encountering are due to a shortage of funding. There is a major communications problem in terms of getting across to the farming community the importance of nature conservation designations and the fact that such designations can have positive benefits. There has been an unfortunate emphasis on the negative aspect of designations. It requires a great deal of communication with farmers, perhaps even on a one-to-one basis which the present under-resourced national parks and wildlife service is not geared to do.
Will Mr. Murphy expand on what could be done with extra resources to combat the communications problem? What is not being done that he would like to do? Can he be more specific?
Mr. Murphy
When an area is in the process of being designated, somebody from the national parks and wildlife service attends public meetings where he or she defends the process. It is easy for somebody at the back of the hall to make a negative comment and carry the meeting with him or her, whereas if the NPWS had the resources to send wildlife conservation rangers to talk to individual farmers on their farms and to point out to them the nature conservation value of certain aspects of the farms, that would be a much more effective way of getting the message across than at public meetings where the NPWS people are on a loser from the start.
As the Opposition tends to pack these meetings, I can appreciate the difficulty.
Mr. Murphy
I do not know about that.
Dr. Newton
I have been working closely with the NPWS over the past few months on another of the dispersed bird species for which we still do not have SPAs and which is on annex 1 of the directive. Therefore it is a high priority species. I refer to the chough, the red-billed crow on the west coast cliffs. One of the issues raised in this regard is that the chough population is doing very well. There is no problem, yet we still have to designate SPAs. The NPWS staff members had a problem when we said to them that they should encourage farmers to continue as they are in west Kerry and wherever else. The birds are doing fine and responding positively to agriculture in those areas. Because the NPWS has been on the back foot for so long, it is hard for it to say that people do not need to do anything but keep going as they are to look after choughs. It is an interesting reversal of the usual situation.
We are not trying to impose restrictions but to sugggest that people are doing a great job, but perhaps should not plant the whole area with trees. There are one or two things that should be put in as restrictions but it is hard to get that point across. How do we get the message across to farmers and members of the public? They sort of ignite when we say there are no restrictions and that people are doing a great job for certain bird species. This is why I think more people are needed on the ground to give the good news stories as well as the bad news stories.
Can these gentlemen tell us anything about the corncrake? Is it extinct?
Mr. Murphy
Last year, there were approximately 130 calling male corncrakes, which is the only branch of the family that one can identify here. We are hopeful that the number can be increased. A big problem in the past two years was that in one of the three remaining core areas for that species, namely the Shannon callows, there were severe flooding problems which wiped out the first brood of nests in the early part of the season and there was a drastic reduction in that area. However, the number in west Connacht, mainly Mayo and part of Galway, increased somewhat. The situation in north Donegal and the islands off Donegal more or less held its own. We are watching to see what happens in the coming year.
For the benefit of Deputy Healy-Rae, there have always been a few corncrakes in the Dingle Peninsula. Perhaps we have not given it as much attention in previous years as we should have but we are going to do so this year. We will be visiting Kerry as part of the corncrake conservation scheme.
Mr. Murphy should give Deputy Healy-Rae a shout when he is going down.
In my neck of the woods around Kilgarvan, Kenmare and Glenflesk, there were so many corncrakes that nobody knew how many were there, but they are not there any longer.
Dr. Newton
In the past two or three years we have been getting reports from parts of the western end of the Dingle Peninsula, areas such as Ventry and Smerwick. It looks like two or three birds have recolonised when we had more or less written them off. We are getting more proactive and are sending an officer down there to look at the situation this summer.
Paidí Ó Sé is from there and he may have brought a few eggs from up the country to the Dingle Peninsula.
I think it was an announcement from the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Deputy O'Donoghue, about the corncrake.
That is right, yes. It could fall in that direction too.
It is politically significant that the corncrake has been found around Drumcree in the recent past. That was published in Wings magazine and I hope it can be confirmed.
Dr. Newton
I think there was one there last summer. We feared we had lost them over the whole of the North, but one or two are coming back. Our colleagues, the RSPB, are still heavily involved with the corncrake project across the country.
Any reason will do for Drumcree to be famous.
A Deputy
Is the corncrake the end of the Deputy's concern about Drumcree?
Why is it not the corncrake and the cuckoo? The cuckoo is becoming scarcer every year.
Mr. Murphy
Many farmland bird species are severely affected by changes in farming practice. The change from hay to silage has been a significant factor. Silage is cut much earlier and this has a negative effect on a range of ground-nesting birds such as skylarks. Birdwatch Ireland is not suggesting that we can turn back the clock in terms of farming practices, but we are hopeful that the rural environmental protection scheme will at least enable us to conserve the existing reservoirs of farmland birds.
What are the other main factors in the decline in numbers of species?
Mr. Murphy
Some years ago there was the related problem of drainage. No substantial field drainage has been done in recent years, but this did affect wetland birds. The primary factor we can identify is changes in agricultural practice, including more intensive farming and the disappearance of extensive farming, which was more friendly to bird species.
I thank the representatives for their presentation. Mention was made of certain landowners. We should acknowledge the tremendous support of the farming community and landowners over hundreds of years in ensuring the protection of our wildlife. Is there a problem with over-designation of areas? Farmers contribute freely towards the natural environment, but when it becomes a matter of obligation under a directive, people take sides. More effort should go into co-operation with landowners, especially under REPS and other programmes and in the matter of funding. It is a matter of bringing people with one rather than turning them against one. The Tidy Towns competition and other initiatives mean that our youth are involved in protecting small areas for different types of birds and wildlife. We should acknowledge that as well.
I welcome the change in planning provisions in rural areas which result in the protection of hedgerows. The hedgerows that are under threat are on road networks, where landowners have an obligation under the health and safety laws to carry out certain works. It should be acknowledged that over the last number of years the hedge-cutting programmes of local authorities have been in line with the suggestions of Birdwatch Ireland.
Mr. Murphy
I endorse most of what the Senator has said. We are very conscious of the importance of the role of landowners and the fact that over decades and centuries farmers have made an outstanding contribution to nature conservation. It is to be hoped they will continue to do so. The matter of designations is related to the point I made about communications. There are many positive aspects to designation which, if they were properly explained to farmers, would receive a better response than has been the case in recent times. There has been considerable improvement in the approach of local authorities to roadside hedge maintenance, but there is scope for further improvement.
I thank Mr. Murphy and Dr. Newton for meeting with the joint committee and for their presentation, which we found very helpful.
Mr. Murphy
I thank the Chairman. We would be happy to return in the future to make a further contribution.