“UNPRECEDENTED” OPPOSITION TO a proposed European law seeking to protect and restore nature is “very concerning”, Green MEPs have said.
In an interview with The Journal, Irish MEP Grace O’Sullivan and German MEP Jutta Paulus, both Greens, outlined how restoring ecosystems will help both nature and humans – and what is at stake if that does not occur. The law is concerned with all types of ecosystems – grasslands and forests, rivers and lakes, peatlands and agricultural land, and towns and cities too.
“10% of species globally are dependent on healthy wetlands and peatlands. 60% of birds use wetlands and peatlands either as breeding sites or as resting sites when they go migrating,” she said. “When you drain peatland and the air comes in contact with the peat, the microbes start eating up that organic matter. If you have one hectare of drained peatland in agricultural use, it emits up to 40 tonnes of CO2 per year, whereas a natural peatland accumulates four to eight tonnes of CO2 per year. It’s a huge difference.”Pushback However, the prospect of ‘rewetting’ peatlands has caused immense concern for farmers who work on land that was previously drained.
However, in the same debate, EU Commissioner for Financial Stability Mairead McGuiness – also a member of Fine Gael, and formerly an agricultural journalist before entering politics – defended the law, saying that it will “help” rather than “harm” farmers. Fine Gael Senator Sean Kyne said: “It is a concern. We have gone full circle here. In the 1950s and 1960s, there were grants to drain land, clear scrub and improve. We have now gone full circle and it is difficult.”
“We are very concerned because EPP has announced that they want to kill the law,” Paulus said, describing a potential block as “unprecedented”. To get the biodiversity agreement over the line at COP15 in December, it was “vital that we could show we are already negotiating a law to put this into European law”, Paulus said.
Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie Members of the Citizens' Assembly visiting Turvey Nature Reserve in June 2022 Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie / RollingNews.ie