Dr. Liam Lysaght:

I will try to be as clear as possible and will start again if that is okay.

Biodiversity and biodiversity policy are very much evidence-based issues. Biodiversity quality is either being maintained and enhanced, or biodiversity is suffering loss. The only effective way to measure success or failure of biodiversity policy is against this trend. Biodiversity is measured by how well ecosystems function and how efficiently they deliver the ecosystem services that we all benefit from, such as pollination, nutrient cycling, soil fertility, water purification, etc. Measurement of ecosystem services is complex but generally the number and diversity of species in an area is a relatively good measure of environmental and ecosystem health.

Our understanding of biodiversity and biodiversity loss in this country is still quite poor.

Although there are well known losses of iconic species such as corncrake, Atlantic salmon and European eel, the bulk of biological diversity and ecosystem services are provided by lesser-known taxonomic groups about which we know very little. For example, just under 32,000 different species have been documented for Ireland yet we estimate there are another 8,000 or so yet to be described.

The majority of our biodiversity and the functions it provides are delivered by smaller creatures - the invertebrates, lichens, algae and fungi which account for 86% of all species in Ireland. Other than the Irish butterfly monitoring scheme which shows a 1.3% decline in butterfly populations since 2008 and the all-Ireland bumblebee monitoring scheme which shows a 4.8% decline each year in bumblebee populations since 2012, we know very little about how these less conspicuous elements of biodiversity and biodiversity function are performing. This is an impediment to the prioritisation, implementation, tracking and reviewing of the effectiveness of biodiversity policy in Ireland.

We know quite a bit about the other more easily recognisable species. Red lists are an internationally recognised method of doing conservation assessments of the risk of species going extinct. It compares the known distribution of species from two different time periods. Red lists have been completed for 12 broad taxonomic groups and have found that on average about 20%, or one in five, of all species assessed in Ireland are threatened with extinction. For bees and fish the figure is an alarming 30% of the species.

Birds are assessed separately through the birds of conservation concern process, the results of which we only published recently. It found that 63% of regularly occurring bird species in Ireland are of conservation concern, with the number of highest conservation concern increasing by 46% since 2013. The species of most concern include the species with which we are familiar, such as corncrake, curlew, lapwing and barn owl, and now includes widespread species like meadow pipit, snipe and kestrel.

From the monitoring schemes that are in place, we know that Ireland is not immune from the well-documented global biodiversity crisis. Biodiversity loss is happening right here in Ireland, too, and is happening right now. For clarity, whereas a small number of species are increasing in abundance and some new species are arriving to Ireland, the overall trend is towards increasing biodiversity loss and associated reduction in the quality of ecosystem services. This is occurring countrywide.

There is one other big caveat to the state of knowledge on biodiversity in Ireland that must be acknowledged. There are no long-term monitoring schemes that extend back more than about 20 years, so none of the big declines in biodiversity loss that Ireland experience during the 1970s and 1980s has been captured. Government policy must avoid the pitfall of falling into the shifting baseline syndrome.

Finally, there must be a twin-track approach to addressing biodiversity loss. We need to make space for biodiversity in all parts of the countryside. I am not separating farm land from other aspects. We must make sure that the approach is countrywide. Everyone taking voluntary actions, big and small, for biodiversity can have a huge, positive cumulative impact. This is likely to create favourable conditions to tackle the declines of the common and widespread species. However, against that, if we want to tackle decline in species that require more specialised conditions, it will require a much vigorous and strategic approach as it is likely to require landscape-scale or catchment-scale interventions. I must note that this has already begun for species such as freshwater pearl mussel, hen harrier and curlew, but it has to be cranked up a lot and a great deal more needs to be done. We must become much more ambitious in our objectives.