A group of independent TDs will bring forward a motion to the Dáil to ensure that rewetting under the Nature Restoration Law will be voluntary for farmers.
The Nature Restoration Law has been stalled over the last two months and is yet to be ratified by the Council of the EU, after a number of member states changed their position on it.
However, it may yet be adopted, and there is a possibility that a meeting of environment minister on June 17 will give the law the final green light, with Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications Eamon Ryan saying recently that he is “hopeful” this will happen.
Ahead of that meeting of environment ministers, the Dáil will hear a motion on June 12 calling on the government to make sure that any nature restoration plan it develops will stipulate that any actions for the rewetting of farmland will be voluntary, and that this land can continue to be defined as agricultural land for the purpose of scheme payments under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
The motion has been put forward by the regional group of TDs, which includes eight independent TDs and the sole member of Aontú in the Dáil (Peadar Tóibín).
Its members are:
- Cathal Berry (Kildare South);
- Seán Canney (Galway East);
- Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth);
- Noel Grealish (Galway West);
- Michael Lowry (Tipperary);
- Verona Murphy (Wexford);
- Denis Naughton (Roscommon-Galway);
- Matt Shanahan (Waterford);
- Peadar Tóibín (Meath West).
The motion notes that the law has targeted certain habitats for restoration measures, which include peatlands.
The text of the law sets a target to restore 20% of all EU land by 2030, and all ecosystems that need restoration by 2050. This will include peatlands under agricultural use.
There is also a specific target to restore 30% of drained peatlands under agricultural use by 2030, 40% by 2040 and 50% by 2050.
According to the motion by the regional independents group, the targets up to 2030 can be delivered by using state-owned land alone but after that, it “becomes uncertain”, as those targets cannot be met only by state-owned land.
The motion says that, while the law does not create a specific obligation on farmers to rewet agricultural peatland, there is no opt-out for farmers or landowners from the overarching target of restoring the targeted ecosystems, which includes peatlands.
The motion says that this will create a “major problem” as, on drained peatland, there will be a requirement to restore and re-establish lost habitats, with rewetting being the most effective way of doing this, and lands which are rewetted will be unable to support current farming activity.
As well as that, the motion says that on uplands, which are predominately peat-based, farming activity will be compromised, and may also cease, in favour or restoration and re-establishment of those habitats, the motion claims.
Furthermore, the regional group said that, as farming activity and the definition of lands as an agricultural area are requirements for CAP support, restored or rewetted land may not be eligible for that support.
The motion, if passed by the Dáil, will call on the government to develop a nature restoration plan that “delivers on climate action through the protection and restoration of nature that also ensures the voluntary nature of actions on farmland, as well as the protection of farmers’ livelihoods”.
It also calls on the government to “ensure that farmland targeted under the Nature Restoration Law can continue to operate a range of agricultural activities that ensures that these lands can continue to be defined as an agricultural area under CAP programmes, and that such status can be maintained”.