Conservation and farming must be hand in glove, seminar hears

Nature conservation needs farming activity, the Irish Heritage Council has told an international conference in Kilkenny on agriculture and nature in an expanded Europe.

Wildlife officer Liam Lysaght told delegates from 17 European countries that a decline in the number of farmland birds and other interference with biodiversity could not really be solved through nature conservation projects.

It would be successful only if nature conservation objectives were incorporated in agricultural policy, Dr Lysaght said.

He said 18 bird species had been identified as being of high conservation concern in Ireland due to threats and population declines, with 10 in farm habitats.

"We have all heard of the decline of the corncrake. But the corncrake is not an isolated case. The corn bunting has become extinct as a breeding species in Ireland since the 1990s not the 1890s, but the 1990s," he said.

"Grey partridge are down to just a handful of coveys and also look as if it will become extinct unless concerted effort is made to ensure its conservation.

"Even the beautiful and once widespread yellowhammer is in serious decline, having experienced a severe population contraction over the last 20 or 30 years."

Dr Lysaght said the intensification and specialisation of agriculture had caused much reduction in the wildlife interest of the countryside.

But the irony was that agriculture provided the best chance to maintain biological and landscape diversity in the Irish countryside, he said.

"Irish agriculture must ensure that we maintain the maximum number of farming units and maximum diversity of production methods if we are to achieve a real rural development agenda which includes nature conservation.

"There are aspects of farming which are beneficial to nature conservation. As a point of principle, as a society, we need to be prepared to reward farmers for the positive contribution they can make to nature conservation.

"The Convention of Biological Diversity, ratified by Ireland in 1996, recognises the intrinsic value of biodiversity, and the mid-term CAP review proposals suggest that that is a principle accepted by the European Commission.

"But to do this in Ireland, we need to introduce measures and programmes which clearly separate the nature conservation objectives from the production or indeed social component of agricultural policy, and provide payments accordingly."

Dr Lysaght said the role of farmers in nature conservation needed to be promoted more positively, and not judged by farmers being paid compensation for wildlife protection.

Agricultural policy needed to have a clear aim and state how farmers and agriculture could help achieve that aim, he said