EPA - Ireland's Environment 2016 - An Assessment

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Ireland’s Environment – An Assessment 2016 198
and assists farmers and food processors to set plans for
further improvements. In its Sustainability Report 2015,
Bord Bia reported that 38,000 on farm assessments
had been completed in 2014 (Bord Bia, 2016). These
assessments cover GHGs, biodiversity, water conservation
and energy efficiency. The Sustainability Report also sets
out the next steps for Origin Green, including plans to
have up to 50,000 farmers using the Teagasc Bord Bia
carbon navigator,13 and plans for every food company
to have an emissions target as part of their Origin Green
plan. On biodiversity it committed to supporting the
implementation of the All Ireland Pollinator Plan.14 It also
commits to working with Teagasc on a pilot project to
develop a sustainability tool for remote sensing of wildlife
habitats on Origin Green member farms and provide
guidance to farmers on how to maintain and enhance
habitat areas on their farms. The potential role of Origin
Green in helping to ensure progress is made in relation
to water quality is also recognised. Importantly Bord Bia
has highlighted that farmer and manufacturer/processor
engagement and implementation are the key challenges
for Origin Green into the future.
River Basin Management Plans and the
Water Framework Directive
A new catchment based approach aims to connect
people and communities with their local steam, river,
lake, spring or coastal water.
Agriculture is the suspected cause for over 50% of river
pollution (EPA, 2015c). It is against this context that a new
national river basin management plan is being prepared for
the period to the end of 2021. In assisting the Minister for
Housing, Planning, Community & Local Government with
the preparation of the new plan, the EPA is assessing and
characterising the impact of pressures, including agricultural
ones, on the water environment across the country at a
local and sub catchment scale. To do this, the EPA is using
a suite of catchment management support tools to identify
areas within catchments with higher likelihood of releasing
nutrients and pollutants to waters. These areas will be
targeted for interventions either to protect or improve water
quality. This approach is used to identify significant pressures
from all sources, including agriculture, and is an important
step forward in prioritising and targeting strategies,
measures and resources for integrating and optimising
agronomic and environmental benefits.
A new approach to implementation called “integrated
catchment management” is being used to support the
development and implementation of this plan. The
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catchment based approach aims to connect people and
communities with their local stream, river, lake, spring or
coastal water. It integrates all water types and relevant
disciplines, including social science, and establishes linkages
with biodiversity, flood mitigation and water quality.
Recognising the same implementation challenge as Origin
Green, it requires close collaboration between relevant
public bodies and a combination of bottom-up and top-
down approaches to implementation. The development
of the website collaboratively by the EPA;
Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local
Government; and the Local Authorities’ Waters and
Communities Office is providing open access to information
on the water environment to all stakeholders and is a
first step to improving awareness and supporting future
dialogue and collaboration. It is expected that further
action to develop connections between communities
and public bodies involved in water management will be
included in the draft River Basin Management Plan that will
go for public consultation at the end of 2016.
Climate Action and Low Carbon
Development Act 2015
The vision is of climate resilience and carbon
neutrality for the agriculture and land use sector.
The Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act
2015, in combination with the National Policy Position
that was published in 2014 (DHPCLG, 2014), provide
the framework for national actions to address climate
change. It establishes a vision of climate resilience and
carbon neutrality for the agriculture and land-use sector,
including forestry by 2050 which does not compromise
safe and sustainable food production. Under the Act, the
National Mitigation Plan and the National Adaptation
Framework will outline the short and longer term policies
and actions at a sectoral and local level needed to achieve
the shorter term targets and long term objective. Sector
plans for Agriculture will need to address mitigation
of agriculture, land use and forest GHG emissions and
provide a framework for adaptation measures required in
the agriculture sector.