We are taking another short break this week over in the west of Ireland.

It’s a different country over here with a totally different landscape to at home and it makes it very difficult to take any biodiversity emergency claims seriously in this country.

At home we have a reasonably highly stocked dairy farm, with plenty of room for wildlife in the hedgerows, stream margins and in wilder areas and pockets of trees left in corners. Wildlife has always had a good opportunity to thrive alongside the dairy herd.

We have always taken a keen interest in the wildlife, and some of the more exotic species that we see regularly include otters, owls, bats, kingfishers, herons, curlews, stoats, kestrels, buzzards, frogs and all of the smaller animals, plants and invertebrates that keep these species thriving.

On our travels recently, we have seen plenty of different landscapes as far west as Achill Island and the Aran Islands. We have seen thousands of sea-birds feeding and breeding off the Cliffs of Moher. We have seen large parts of the country with stone walls, rushes and older grasses in paddocks, left almost idle in comparison to some of the more manicured, highly stocked and highly fertilised fields of the east coast.

These differences in landscape are caused as much by differences in soil-type, climate and rainfall on the opposite sides of the country as much as in differences in farming practice.

All of these differences create a huge amount of habitat diversity nationally.?

I don’t know who declared a national biodiversity emergency in Ireland or on what grounds it was accepted as a legitimate claim but anyone who travels with their eyes open will see a different picture.

We can always improve and develop habitats on farm and make more room for nature to flourish alongside our farming operations. Unfortunately, margins are very tight in farming now and leaving more space for wildlife or new habitats often requires support and incentives.

The cost of food is at an all-time low and we are constantly seeing ads on TV offering food at lower and lower cost. We never see two mobile phones for the price of one or 20% free on your next tank of fuel.

This makes it very difficult for farmers to invest in habitat protection such as fencing off watercourses without some form of financial support.

We also have the ridiculous anomaly of land becoming ineligible for farm payments if it is left to return to wilderness or if too much scrub, trees or hedgerows are allowed to grow. Driving around the west, it’s obvious that this will become an increasing problem over the next few years as the current generation of farmers’ age and dwindling margins make it impossible for the next generation to take up the reins.

Forestry

We will see a lot more forestry take hold in these areas in the future which may or may not be good for biodiversity. Sitka spruce, in my opinion, doesn’t create too much of an environment for wildlife to thrive in with little more than moss and lichen growing under the trees.? We are seeing corporate investment in areas for planting trees to offset carbon emissions. This may be an opportunity or a threat to our biodiversity and needs to be managed into the future to avoid excessive Sitka spruce monocultures.

With a green tinge to the new Government, we need an acknowledgement that we have a very solid biodiversity foundation in this country. We need support for a well-funded CAP and environmental schemes to build on this. We need to measure where we are in terms of habitat in different parts of the country and target investment in areas where it is needed.

We need to tailor supports to suit vulnerable species in certain areas and match habitat development to the landscape and the local species requirements. With the culture of low food prices well established, we will also need the development of small scale agro-energy projects to provide an alternative source of income to incentivise the next generation of farmers to return to the land.

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