90 / 234
Ireland’s Environment – An Assessment 2016
86
Ocean acidification, as a result of climate change, is a
cause of concern worldwide and the effects are now
being seen in Irish waters. Coastal erosion as a result of
extreme storm events has also become a prominent issue
in recent years. While 36% of commercial fish stocks are
being fished sustainably, 26% remain overfished. While
changes introduced under the CFP have reduced the risks
of overfishing, further efforts are needed to protect species
that are still under threat.
Why is Progress So Slow and What
Steps Are Needed to Accelerate
Change?
The target established for Ireland of 13.6% improvement in
the ecological status of surface waters from the 2009 baseline
to be achieved by 2015, which was included in the first cycle
of RBMPs, has not been achieved. In spite of our best efforts,
satisfactory progress towards achieving sustainable water
resource management is not being achieved.
As well as the WFD, there are several directives in place
which relate to the quality and condition of the water
environment, including those covering urban waste water,
agricultural practices impacting on waters and protected
habitats and species, yet we are not seeing significant
improvements. It is evident that a multi-party partnership
approach involving government, state agencies, industrial
sectors, non-governmental organisations and local
communities is required to enable significant synergies
to be realised. To be effective, the approach will require
the pooling of knowledge, resources and efforts and
the targeting of tailored management measures based
on the best available scientific evidence. Inevitably, this
type of approach is challenging, and it will take time to
develop and build capacity, but ultimately it should deliver
environmental objectives that are ambitious, achievable
and acceptable to all sectors.
Weaknesses in governance arrangements were identified
as an impediment to implementing the WFD during first
river basin management cycle. Changes to the governance
arrangements have now been made; as a result there is
greater clarity on the roles and responsibilities of public
bodies and improved implementation can be expected
in the future. In the case of the marine environment, the
MSFD is in the process of being implemented and the
Marine Spatial Planning Directive is in the process of being
transposed into national legislation. Strong and clear
governance structures will be essential to achieving the
goals of these marine directives.
There is certainly room for improvement in the
implementation and enforcement of environmental
regulations to increase the level of compliance. Improved
environmental regulation leading to better compliance,
in combination with other policy tools such as bottom-up
community-based catchment initiatives and the use of
EPIs, is needed to achieve environmental objectives.
A particular challenge in managing water resources
effectively and sustainably into the future is incorporating
the value of these resources effectively into economic
decision making. Until the real environmental cost of using
water resources is internalised into the decision-making
processes within all sectors that use the resource, overuse
and misuse are highly likely to escalate into the future as
demands for catchment services increase. In order to put a
value on these resources, sectors must first understand and
be aware of the services that catchments provide them
with and the value that they obtain from these services.
Therefore, the immediate task ahead for environmental
authorities is to communicate and raise awareness of the
services gained by society from catchments. The ongoing
mapping of ecosystem services across the EU, including
Ireland, should help to inform this awareness raising.