Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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407. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the implications for farm land arising from the European Union biodiversity strategy; the additional farmland that she expects to be designated arising from this strategy; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20250/20]

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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The EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 was launched by the European Commission on 20 May 2020. It proposes ambitious EU actions and commitments to halt the biodiversity loss that is taking place at an alarming rate in Europe and worldwide.

The new Strategy tackles the key drivers of biodiversity loss: unsustainable use of land and sea, overexploitation of natural resources, pollution, and invasive alien species. It also recognises the intrinsic links between the crisis facing biodiversity and that of climate change (the 5th main driver of biodiversity loss).

The European Commission has asked for the European Council and the European Parliament to approve the Strategy. Discussions at Council level are ongoing and my Department is participating in these, in consultation with other Departments.

On foot of initial discussions among Member States, the Commission has undertaken to put forward criteria and guidance for additional designations in 2020 and aims to reach an agreement with the Member States on these by the end of 2021. The targets set out in the Strategy are Union wide and the issue of burden sharing across the EU will also be discussed in this context.

Until such criteria and guidance are published in relation to designations, it is not possible to determine the implications for farmland or the additional farmland that might be designated in Ireland. My Department has a structure for discussing designation issues with the farming organisations and will meet them when there is more clarity around this issue.