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

Chapter 15: Environmental Performance, Policy and Implementation Ireland’s Performance on Nature Significant conservation, knowledge and protected area designation gaps remain to be resolved to safeguard nature, given that 85 per cent of protected habitats have been identified as being in an ‘unfavourable’ (either bad or inadequate) conservation status. Ireland’s third National Biodiversity Action Plan was adopted in 2017. Protected areas now account for approximately 17 per cent of Ireland’s land area but only 2 per cent of marine territories. Under the Convention on Biological Diversity, Ireland adopted a target in 2010 that 10 per cent of all coastal and marine areas would be conserved through protected areas, while the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 has committed to a minimum of 30 per cent protection of the EU’s sea areas, with strict protection for a third of these areas. The Commission’s EIR for 2019 noted that, following earlier European Court of Justice rulings, on the basis of the latest update, Ireland’s terrestrial Natura 2000 network under the Birds and Habitats Directives is now considered to be complete but that further designation of SPAs under the Birds Directive is required, particularly for the corncrake. The EIR further notes that there is also a lack of clarity on the level of implementation of conservation measures for designated sites and that significant knowledge and designation gaps remain in Ireland’s marine Natura 2000 network. The Commission’s most significant concern is the conservation of raised and blanket bogs and the issue of turf cutting within protected areas, which is still the subject of an infringement procedure (2010/2161). The Commission’s report also notes that Ireland has conservation issues in SPAs, for example the decline of wading birds, particularly the curlew, reconciling the protection of the hen harrier with forestry and wind-farm development, and addressing the cutting of hedgerows and the burning of uplands during the nesting season of birds (EC, 2019b). As discussed in Chapter 6, the most recent Habitats Directive Article 17 report (NPWS, 2019) identified 85 per cent of Ireland’s listed habitats as having an ‘unfavourable’ (either bad or inadequate) conservation status, which is a higher proportion than the EU average of 72 per cent (European Court of Auditors, 2020). Almost half of all Ireland’s listed habitats (46%) are demonstrating ongoing declines. These ongoing declines are of real concern, particularly in Ireland’s peatland, grassland, woodland and marine habitats. None of Ireland’s listed peatlands was in a favourable conservation status in 2019 (Figure 15.6). The main drivers of these declines are agricultural practices, which are negatively affecting over 70 per cent of habitats, particularly ecologically unsuitable grazing, abandonment, pollution, drainage and reclamation practices. The picture was somewhat better for protected species, with 57 per cent of listed species reported as being in a ‘favourable’ conservation status and 72 per cent demonstrating stable or improving trends (NPWS, 2019). Ireland is a European stronghold for many of the listed EU species such as the otter. The proportion of EU protected species demonstrating ongoing decline is 15 per cent. In relation to birds, almost 20 per cent of Ireland’s breeding bird species are in long-term decline, while the populations of over half of Ireland’s wintering birds are declining over the short term 2 . Habitat loss, climate change and cumulative impacts represent the biggest pressures. Given the broadly negative status of semi-natural habitats, the status of unprotected species is unlikely to be positive. To date, 9.9 per cent of Ireland’s approximately 31,500 species have had their conservation status systematically assessed according to the International Union Conservation of Nature Red List Process. Of the 3110 species assessed, 2.7 per cent are now regionally extinct, 14.8 per cent fall into a threat category (critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable) and a further 9.2 per cent are considered ‘near threatened’. Of the 15 resident butterfly species systematically monitored in Ireland by the Irish Butterfly Monitoring Scheme coordinated by the National Biodiversity Data Centre, five have experienced strong or moderate population declines between 2008 and 2019 (Judge and Lysaght, 2020; NBDC, 2019). 2 Article 12 reported data https://nature-art12.eionet.europa.eu/ article12/report?period=3&country=IE 397