SINCE THE END of the Second World War, how we use our land and sea has been driven by a need to maximise food production.
The result has been a superabundance of food across the European Union but a commensurate collapse of the living world as seas were emptied, rivers disfigured and ‘rough ground’ converted into something, anything, that could deliver an income.
In areas where food production was barely possible, remote, soggy blanket bogs for instance, huge investments by public bodies were made to grow crops of non-native trees in the hope that they could be marketed and sold. It was a total failure. Today, our land is a net emitter of greenhouse gases while the biodiversity crisis has spared no corner of the country. That is all beginning to change.
Yesterday’s Budget announced something completely new – a dedicated funding stream to finance projects specifically for the delivery of environmental targets over the medium to long term. It will amount to €3.15 billion between 2026 and 2030 and will be ringfenced to protect it from economic bumps in the road. A separate, €2.25 billion interim fund is also available immediately to get projects up and running.
Although the Environmental Pillar of NGOs had pushed for more, and no doubt they are correct in better gauging the magnitude of spending needed, there are two things that make me feel that this remains a transformative development. Firstly, we’re talking about billions, not millions. Suddenly, we’re not talking about small projects that deliver marginal benefits. We can raise ambition to match the scale of the transformation that’s needed – the repair of the vast bogs that are so essential to climate and nature, the purchase of lands for new Nature Reserves, the creation of large Marine Protected Areas, the channelling of new income streams to farmers, fishers and communities to be the change makers on the front line of the environmental crisis.
Secondly, the money is guaranteed at least until the end of the decade. This puts the new fund on a similar cycle to the National Development Plan or the Common Agricultural Policy; just long enough for longer-term decision making.
The Climate and Nature Fund is a real win for Minister of State Malcolm Noonan, who has championed it since the EU proposed its Nature Restoration Law, something that is expected to be in force in 2024. He also managed to again increase funding for the National Parks and Wildlife Service and other Heritage bodies so that we will continue to see that organisation rebuild its capacity, as well as ensuring that each Local Authority will get a dedicated Biodiversity Officer.
Both the fishing industry and the farm organisations have been left feeling empty-handed after this Budget, but they are failing to see the bigger picture. The rural economy is shifting away from just producing food, and raw materials like timber, to one that is based around nature restoration.
This is great news for farmers and those fishing from smaller boats as it will increase incomes, reduce inequality, promote diversification and create new, exciting opportunities for small businesses.
It’s also great news for communities who should be at the centre of these changes. The stunning success of Abbeyleix Bog Project in Co. Laois, where local volunteers not only stopped the destruction of their local bog but have turned it into a much-loved local amenity, while simultaneously restoring the bog so it is now proven to be sequestering more carbon, could be repeated across the country.
It’s not all good news. Minister for Agriculture, Charlie McConalogue, announced in the Budget new payments for simply owning sheep or cattle, €20 per ewe or €200 per cow. This is a perverse incentive, a counterproductive waste of money in other words, when we need to be reducing the number of farm animals in the country. When we had payments per head of the animal in the 1990s it resulted in an ecological catastrophe on the hills, we can’t go back to that. On the other hand, the budget for environmental schemes has been expanded so that all farmers who want to be involved can be accommodated. The number of farmers applying shows the appetite for change is there.
The announcements in the Budget combine with recent changes to policy that no longer penalise farmers for having bushes, trees or wetland on their farms. In effect, we now have a policy that pays farmers for rewilding and nature restoration. It’s a new nature-based economy that has the potential to transform our country over the coming decades. Farmers and rural communities should embrace it.
Pádraic Fogarty is an environmental campaigner.
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