Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

447 Chapter 16: Environmental Policy Implementation and Performance At national level, Ireland’s 4th National Biodiversity Action Plan 2023-2030 sets out objectives, targets and actions to protect and restore biodiversity. Peatland rehabilitation will be crucial in meeting Ireland’s biodiversity targets, as well as in improving the LULUCF sector’s contribution to carbon sequestration. Plans such as the National Raised Bog Special Area of Conservation Management Plan are helping set out a roadmap for the long-term management, restoration and conservation of protected raised bogs nationally. Nature protection measures are also being implemented within various other sectoral plans, such as the National Planning Framework and Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027 for implementing the EU Common Agricultural Policy. The EIR 2022 noted that Ireland legally protects 14% of its terrestrial area, which is low compared with the EU average of 26% (EC, 2022). Therefore, Ireland is not currently on track to meet the EU-wide target of legally protecting a minimum of 30% of the EU’s land area by 2030, as set out in the EU Biodiversity Strategy. In 2022/2023 Ireland significantly increased the protection of its marine area from 2.3% to 9.2%. However, this remains far short of the EU target of legally protecting a minimum of 30% of the EU’s sea area by 2030. Moreover, promised legislation on marine protected areas has been delayed; this legislation is essential to ensure that marine biodiversity is properly protected in the planning of future developments in the maritime area, including offshore renewable energy projects. As discussed in Chapter 7, only 15% of Ireland’s protected habitats and 56% of its protected species were in good conservation status, according to the latest report (NPWS, 2019). Ireland also faces significant challenges to protect birds in SPAs and in the wider countryside, with many species in serious decline and some at serious risk of extinction. A European Commission report in 2023 found that out of ten countries assessed, Ireland scored lowest across planning, implementation, site management, monitoring and conservation outcomes in SPAs (EC, 2023a). The declines in species and habitats are due to changes in agricultural practices, including intensification, pollution, the spread of invasive species and the changing climate (discussed further in Chapter 7). Ireland’s rate of adoption of organic farming practices remains low. Only 2.2% of Ireland’s utilised agricultural area was under organic farming in 2022, far below the EU average of 10.5%. Under the CAP Strategic Plan, Ireland aims to more than triple the area of agricultural land farmed organically to 7.5% by 2027 and to this end has increased the financial support available, while Ireland’s Climate Action Plan 2024 sets a target of 10% of the agricultural land area to be organically farmed by 2030. As at 4 July 2024, there were four nature-related CJEU cases open against Ireland, relating to: ■ failing to protect peat bogs ■ failing to adopt and to notify the penalties applicable to breaches of the Invasive Alien Species Regulation ■ failing to classify SPAs ■ failing to complete the designation of SACs under the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) and the establishment of the necessary conservation measures based on clearly defined conservation objectives. The Commission also has concerns about Ireland’s conservation of blanket and raised bog SACs, which are the subject of an infringement procedure. It notes that while Ireland has made progress on peatlands by publishing the National Peatlands Strategy in 2015 and a National Raised Bog Special Area of Conservation Management Plan 2017-2022, implementation gaps remain. The priority actions for Ireland to address nature and biodiversity, identified by the Commission, are listed in Topic Box 16.3.