The Department of Agriculture has sought clarification of the meaning of "protection" from the European Commission under the proposals for the next CAP for peatlands, Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed has said.

The proposals for the next CAP 2021-2027 say that there need to be “appropriate protection of wetland and peatland” in order to contribute to climate change mitigation.

The main objective of this is for the “protection of carbon-rich soils” and it is this that the Department has requested clarification on.

“Ireland has requested clarification of the meaning of ‘protection’ from the Commission, and this will help to inform the implementation of measures at farm level,” Minister Creed said.

Protection of peatlands

This week, the director general of DG Agriculture and Rural Development Wolfgang Burtscher told the Irish Farmers Journal that while peatlands represent a relatively small share of EU land and farmland, the protection of their carbon stock is extremely important to help reach EU climate reduction targets.

“According to land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) reporting for the year 2017, in the EU croplands on high-carbon-stock soil are responsible for 31.5 MtCO2 per year of emissions (33% of organic soil emissions), and grassland for 40.3 MtCO2 per year (42%),” he said, adding that Commission is paying more attention to the protection of these soils in the next CAP.

“It will allow member states to create specific supporting schemes for restoration of peatlands,” he said.

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