EPA - Ireland's Environment, An Integrated Assessment - 2020

Executive Summary The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is required by statute to undertake and report – at four-year intervals – on an integrated assessment of Ireland’s natural environment. What do we mean by an ‘integrated assessment’? It means seeing the environment in its totality so that we can understand our impact, both positive and negative. In our human, ecological and physical systems everything is connected. Therefore, to allow us to understand how human activities can affect the environment, our assessments take more of a systems view, going beyond simply looking at individual parts of the environment to consider their interconnections and co-dependencies. This, the seventh state of Ireland’s environment report, which includes input from key national agencies with core knowledge and data, is being published by the EPA at a time when Ireland is starting to sow the seeds of climate and wider environmental and sustainable development leadership. The report provides the up-to- date environmental, and wider sustainable development evidence base on which such leadership can continue to be built. The delivery of trusted and actionable knowledge on our environment is essential to allow us to plan with a degree of certainty for a better future. The Importance of Our Environment Ireland’s terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine environments host exceptional ecosystems that support a rich and diverse population of flora and fauna. These ecosystems provide essential services to people, including, for example, food, construction and manufacturing resources, recreation, healing, pollination, flood attenuation and clean water. Ireland’s atmospheric, terrestrial including soils, freshwater and marine systems are essential to the health of its citizens and the functioning of its economy. By helping to prevent damage to our environment, we are, by association, protecting our own health. While aspects of environmental protection can be achieved through development and implementation of good government policy, it is the active engagement and participation of everyone that is essential if real and meaningful change is to be made. Aerial view of part of Clew Bay, Co. Mayo There is an ever-growing body of research evidence continually reinforcing the fact that engagement and contact with our surrounding natural environment is associated with measurable improvements in the health and wellbeing of the population. Exposure to green (parks, trees, hedgerows, countryside) and blue (river, lakes, canals, sea) spaces has been shown to have a positive influence on a range of health outcomes. Childhood exposure to the natural environment is of particular importance given the positive physical, cognitive and social development effects it affords. An investment in well- designed, high-quality and accessible green spaces, and the protection of blue spaces, is an investment in public health. The provision of health-promoting environments in urban spatial planning should be viewed as a necessary and integral component of urban infrastructure. Every dimension of how we live – our homes, our workplaces, how we move, eat, play, commune and create – has the potential to impact on, or be impacted by, our environment. As a nation we rely on our natural environment – our rivers, seas, air and land – to accept, assimilate, cleanse or store our public, industrial and private effluents and wastes. Our natural environment provides such essential services but its bearing capacity must be understood and regulated in environmental planning, consumption and production processes. Similar constraints exist in how we draw on its resources to feed our society and our economy, including our soils, seas, freshwaters and other natural resources (mineral and biological). Many of the issues we face which negatively impact our environment, and our health and wellbeing, are inherently linked. 13