The State must take responsibility for the restoration of nature

How on earth can we ask farmers to make long-term commitments for nature when the State itself seems to have no interest?

Pádraic Fogarty: "Just like we rescued the banks a decade and a half ago, now it is nature that needs a bail-out"

The most sweeping new regulation in relation to nature in more than 30 years was proposed last summer by the European Commission. This Nature Restoration Law will set legally binding targets for a whole range of species and habitats — including pollinators, farmland birds, sharks, the removal of obstacles to migratory fish on rivers, tree cover in cities, native forests and more — to be reached by the end of the decade.

Anyone familiar with existing environmental laws will know that Ireland has made a fine art of ignoring them, but the EU is convinced that without more specific, time-bound commitments, then meeting biodiversity targets will not be possible.