Dr. Humberto Delgado Rosa:

Let me get back to the impact on farmers and potential land abandonment. Let us refer to the nature restoration law again. As far as I am informed Ireland has its own climate action programme 2021 and the coming plan in 2023 that if I am not wrong it amounts to more rewetting of drained peatland potentially than we are proposing in the nature restoration law. There is an issue to be tackled which is climate change and the consensus is that peatland is a very appropriate target for that. If the issues are property rights and how to tackle them they will need to be dealt with from a carbon perspective. We are convinced there are good options to fully respect private property rights. We have seen that happen in other member states.

On afforestation in drained peatlands including with non-native Sitka spruce we have some concerns in the European Commission on the Irish strategy of planting Sitka spruce in important areas for biodiversity, including peatland and grasslands, that often threatens habitats and species under the habitats directives. Addressing or not other kinds of drained peatland including land used for afforestation or peatland under extraction is fully, in this case, an Irish option. It can be taken into account or not. It depends on the will of the member state