Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 5 October 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

EU Nature Restoration Target: COPA-COGECA

Mr. Niall Curley:

No. They were already specific targets. These habitats or ecosystems are already covered. They are the wetlands part of the habitats that need to get to 90% by 2050. The targets are 30%, 60% and 90% by 2030, 2040 and 2050 respectively. These peatland habitats already have to be rewet and restored to a certain level of good condition, which is yet to be defined per country.

These areas will have to be rewetted in general but, taking the agricultural aspect out of it altogether, they are talking about them because they are drained peatlands in the first place. If Bord na Móna owns that land and it is drained, that is what they are talking about. If they are drained bogs that have forestry, that is what they are talking about, because it is the drained peatlands that are adverse to climate change adaptation and mitigation.