Conservation needs farming, seminar told

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.