Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

18 Executive Summary Land 1. Ireland’s land is in demand. Our current land use is a net source of greenhouse gas emissions. Some of our current land use practices such as agriculture, forestry and urbanisation are exerting pressures on water quality and nature that show no immediate signs of abating. 2. We cannot make more land, so must use our land wisely. Part of this challenge is to understand how best to use our land for social and economic benefit in a way that supports, rather than damages, the environment. The national land use review has a vital role to play in identifying land use opportunities and constraints. 3. Land use offers natural, social and economic benefits. We can use our land in ways that support climate action, nature restoration, protection of water quality and a sustainable economy through implementing a multiple benefits approach. To do this we must reframe how we approach national land use decisions. We must take a holistic and integrated view across all the demands there are on Ireland’s land. Emerging evidence shows that we can implement solutions that deliver natural, social and economic capital together. 4. Land use is about using land to benefit people. Landowners and other stakeholders need to be engaged in decisions that impact them. Evidence shows that to reframe how we use our land will require engaging people in the process and providing positive supports to incentivise change. Soil 1. Ireland’s soils play important roles in storing carbon, in regulating both water flow and water quality and in growing food and raw materials. Soils are under threat from excess nutrients, compaction, soil sealing and loss of soil biodiversity, in Ireland and across the EU. Soil health must be prioritised to ensure food security, protect the soil biome, and safeguard the important environmental services that soil provides. 2. The protection of soils lacked a legal and policy framework until recently and the publication of the EU Soil Strategy in 2021 and the proposed soil monitoring law in 2023 are significant. Ireland faces challenges in achieving the objectives of the EU Soil Strategy and in implementing the proposed soil monitoring law. However, getting this right would significantly advance the protection of Ireland’s soil health. 3. To support the proposed soil monitoring law and soil health assessment, Ireland should advance soil mapping and modelling, through a cross-public sector approach, which would rapidly improve our knowledge of soil health at a national level. Nature 1. The Irish landscape is heavily modified by humans. Many of the few remaining natural and semi-natural habitats are in a poor or bad state. Research in Ireland highlights that 85% of our protected habitats and almost one- third of our protected species of flora and fauna are in unfavourable status, over half our native plant species are in decline and more than 50 bird species are of high conservation concern. The leading causes of these declines are changes in agricultural practices, including intensification; pollution; the increasing spread of invasive species; and our changing climate. 2. Our natural habitats and biodiversity have been squeezed to the margins of our landscape and policies, while food production and economic development have been prioritised. However, nature underpins our food production, food security and economic development. We risk our future if we continue to marginalise nature, and its protection, and fail to deliver adequate, achievable, impactful, evidence-based and coordinated action to protect and restore it. 3. Biodiversity loss affects everyone. It is essential that nature protection, enforcement, management and restoration are mainstreamed across government, social and economic sectors and are fully considered at all levels of national, regional and local decision-making. 4. Nature can recover if given the opportunity. For example, Ireland’s corncrake population has risen by more than 35% in recent years, reflecting the outcome of a multi-million euro conservation investment that began in 2019. Positive actions to halt declines and to restore the key elements of our natural world must be implemented.