Ireland’s flora and fauna at risk

THE diversity of flora and fauna on agricultural land in Ireland may be more at risk than those in any other habitat in Europe, the Teagasc national Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS) conference was told in Tullamore yesterday.

John O’Halloran, UCC, and Alex Copland and John Murphy of Birdwatch Ireland, made the claim in a presentation to the conference on maximising the biodiversity of REPS.

They said that in the last 40 years there have been declines in the abundance and distribution of a wide range of farmland plants and invertebrates, especially on arable land.