Farmers have “nothing to fear” from recommendations put forward by the Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss, according to its chairperson.
Dr. Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin said during its deliberations assembly that members “purposely asked to hear the voices of the farmers” and that its recommendations reflect the “respect” that members have for farmers.
This week the group, of 99 randomly selected members of the public who make up the Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss, will vote in online ballots on 100 outstanding recommendations.
The assembly, which has been deliberating since last May, has heard from more than 80 different speakers, including many of the farm organisations and received 650 submissions from across Ireland and internationally.
Last November assembly members voted on and agreed over 100 individual recommendations including holding a constitutional referendum on biodiversity.
The Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss concluded its final meeting at the weekend and put forward a number of further recommendations which included specific references to agriculture and farming practices.
The wide-ranging recommendations could have very significant implications on land use in Ireland and include recommendations on key issues such as forestry, pesticides, hedgerows, breaches of pollution and environment regulations.
Biodiversity targets
One of the recommendations (A4) states that biodiversity targets in national schemes, such as the Common Agricultural Policy and Agri – Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES), “must be made significantly more ambitious”.
The assembly also recommended that “funding must be increased to support this ambition.”
Another recommendation (A6) sets out that there should be “increased access to agri-environmental and payments-on-results schemes must be available to all farmers with commensurate funding”.
A final report – once the votes on all recommendations are gathered – will be prepared and presented to government and the Oireachtas.
Source:@CitizAssembly
According to Dr. Ní Shúilleabháin one of the assembly’s key remits is to highlight how the “state can improve its response to the issue of biodiversity loss”.
“More needs to be done by policy makers. There have been policies in place that have done a lot of damage and that is part of the reason why we’re in such a poor state of biodiversity currently.
“The membership of the assembly really wants policymakers to take this seriously – there cannot be any greenwashing because each and every person in every sector in local life has a role to play in this,” she said.
According to Dr. Ní Shúilleabháin many of the latest recommendations reflect assembly members’ concerns over the “welfare of our farmers and the welfare of their family”.
“One key message we repeatedly heard from farmers was about their pride in their land and of their commitment to make sure the land is in the best condition for the generation coming after them; I think that that’s very well reflected in the assembly’s recommendations,” she added.