Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 22 June 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Reduction of Carbon Emissions of 51% by 2030: Discussion (Resumed)

Dr. Oliver Moore:

To get a background on biodiversity first, Europe has lost approximately half of all its farmland birds since 1980. In less than my lifetime, half of all the birds have gone. I was born in 1974. As a starting point, things are not going well in terms of biodiversity. In Ireland, 85% of habitats are considered to be of bad ecological status. The position with approximately one third of wild bees and two thirds of bird species is concerning. Basically, those birds are on either a red or an amber list and the bees are threatened with extinction. Yet, when one looks at schemes such as the biodiversity regeneration in a dairying environment, BRIDE, project or the research carried out by Professor Eileen Power and Professor Jane Stout on organic dairy farms compared with conventional farms in Ireland, one can see options to improve biodiversity through farming initiatives. Likewise, if we can stop the loss of our semi-natural grasslands and use eco schemes and other initiatives to help high nature value farmers blossom, biodiversity can blossom too. For example, there was research in Finland which found that extensive organic cattle grazing was better than any biodiversity measure because it meant that the insects in the grass fields were still alive. Dung beetles were available for birds to eat. Dung beetles are good for the soil. They make different pores in the ground from those made by earthworms so that improves filtration, and they have not been killed by a wormer. Then the bird does not get killed by eating a sick dung beetle. If we increase organic extensive farming in Ireland, we do not use pesticides in that context and we do not have the wormers or the veterinary products to the same level. That ends up increasing the biodiversity performance of rural Ireland and of agriculture.

It is not just the organics. It works with projects such as BRIDE as well. We must use the eco schemes in the CAP now. Next week, when the Minister is in Europe arguing about the GAEC and climate elements of the CAP, as well as the eco scheme elements, let us keep the GAECs strong environmentally and use eco schemes to help farmers transition, especially farmers who potentially stand to gain from convergence, that is, farmers with low entitlements but who are in high nature value farming areas. If we are clever with the schemes from Pillar 2 and the eco schemes and the conditionality in Pillar 1, we can start a sustainable transition from a biodiversity perspective. The need clearly exists with all the significant species in decline, with ground nesting birds, in particular, having a very difficult time in Ireland and with the evidence from BRIDE and from organic farming. We have very little evidence from organic farming in Ireland because no research money is put into it. The little amount we have shows that the biodiversity performance is better on an organic farm. We have to start fast-tracking these things. We have a just transition fund, potentially, through the carbon tax. We must start helping farmers to transition to even better performance and using projects such as BRIDE and initiatives such as the Organic Initiative to signpost the way.

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