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Farmland birds are slowly but surely disappearing from the landscape, according to BirdWatch Ireland.
Head of advocacy at BirdWatch Ireland Oonagh Duggan said that 16 of Ireland’s farmland bird species are on the group’s red list, which means they are of “highest conservation concern”.
She said the corn bunting is one farmland bird species which is “already gone”.
Duggan said farmers and conservationists must now use the “same determination used to tackle the COVID-19 crisis” to work together to reduce further biodiversity loss.
She made her comments on Wednesday during a statement to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture and the Marine on Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027.
Emergency
While welcoming some of the improvements for farmland biodiversity in Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan, which is currently being reviewed by the European Commission, Oonagh Duggan said it is “not an emergency response”.
She called on policy makers to increase the ambition within the plan for protecting farm wildlife.
Much greater support and targeting of actions and funding is needed on all farmland
She told TDs that Birdwatch Ireland has calculated that “2% to 5% of the €9.8bn Irish CAP budget will be spent on effective measures for biodiversity” and warned that this is “very weak”.
“Much greater support and targeting of actions and funding is needed on all farmland, especially high-nature value farmland and pulling the brakes on the intensification model,” she said.
She called for small wetlands to be added to the space for nature condition (GAEC 8) list of habitats within the plan and said the forestry definition should apply to native woodlands only.
Hedgerows
On farmland bird habitat in hedgerows, Duggan said farmers are allowed to remove hedgerows as long as the same length is replanted before removal.
She said: “This is facilitating the removal of hedgerows and must stop. You cannot compare the biodiversity supported by old hedgerows with new whips. Retention of landscape features means keeping them.”
She called for specialist ecological advice and a communications campaign to be rolled out to help farmers improve the quality of hedgerows, ponds and wetlands and warned that without this, “the state of nature will not change” on Ireland’s farms.
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