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New land designations proposed by the European Commission are “rewilding by another name”, according to the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) director of organisation Vincent Roddy.
He told a meeting of farmers in Williamstown, Co Galway, on Thursday night that if strictly protected designations are applied, farmers will effectively be stopped from farming it.
The European Commission has proposed that areas of very high biodiversity value or potential “should be granted special care in the form of strict protection” in its biodiversity strategy.
No-go area
This means land would have a level of protection which is not necessarily a no-go area, but that allows “no significant disturbance of natural ecological processes”.
Roddy said: “If a strictly protected designation is applied, you’ll effectively be stopped from farming it. Now, they might say that you’ll be able to carry on a limited scale, and you might, but it will be really limited.
“The strictly protected designation is rewilding by another name. So they’ll stop everyone farming it and then the only option you’ll have is what the State offers you in a rewetting programme. That’s why we believe we have to watch this proposal.
“Once we go down the road of taking money from the State, it’s great by all means, but the challenge here is we don’t know if that money will continue,” he said.
Mother of all designations
For farmers who think that designations cannot be that bad, he said that there are 39 actions requiring consent from the Department before they can be carried out, including changing the stocking density and spreading fertiliser or lime.
“The designation that is coming is much more extreme than what is currently there.
“What’s coming is definitely the mother of all designations and it going to impact on farming, it is going to impact on communities,” he said.
Rewetting peatlands
In relation to rewetting peatlands, Roddy said that the temptation at Government level to use Ireland’s peatlands as a means of delivering on carbon targets is something that should not be ignored, because it will affect everyone.
“The problem is if one farmer blocks a drain and there’s other farmers further up that want to continue farming, that’s going to be an issue.
“If I block up that land and get a couple of thousand euro to do that, there’s two neighbours just up from me that would be depending on that. What happens if they don’t want that land blocked up or that drain blocked up?
“Effectively, what I’m doing for myself, I’m also making a decision for them and that will create an issue because I don’t want to be making decisions for other people. That is going to be a challenge, there’s no doubt about that,” he said.
For more on designations and rewetting, see next week’s Irish Farmers Journal.
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