An Taisce has warned that Ireland will not meet the EU deadline of 2010 to halt the loss of native wildlife unless it takes immediate steps to stop damaging practices being permitted by State agencies.
The environmental body welcomed yesterday's launch of the "Notice Nature" awareness campaign to protect native wildlife species, but said "concerted action" would have to be taken if the deadline was to be met.
Minister for the Environment Dick Roche said the new campaign was an important part of the Government's effort to meet the EU goal. As detailed in yesterday's Irish Times, the campaign will target sectors such as farming, construction and tourism to ensure that wildlife and the environment are protected. The campaign's website, www.noticenature.ie, gives practical tips on how to protect wildlife and ecosystems.
The future of at least 150 species of native Irish wildlife is under threat, including the red squirrel, the barn owl, the natterjack toad and nine species of bat.
Anja Murray, An Taisce's natural environment officer, welcomed the plans to create greater awareness, but said the protection of biodiversity would have to be tackled sector by sector.
She said enormous damage was being done to coastal habitats because aquaculture licences were being handed out with little or no assessment. Similarly, wetland habitats were being filled with construction waste because the authorities were granting waste licences without fully assessing the danger, she claimed. Ms Murray said there was widespread, unregulated removal of hedgerows in the interests of construction and farming. Although the State's biodiversity plan had a target of 30 per cent broadleaf planting, this had no legal basis and was not being enforced, she added.
"At the rate we are going, it would be very difficult to meet the 2010 target," she said.
Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) also criticised the Government for the proliferation of the non-native Sitka spruce.
FIE members protested outside the launch of the Notice Nature campaign yesterday and called on the Government to ensure that 50 per cent of all trees planted were broadleaf varieties.
Deirdre de Burca, FIE member and Green Party councillor, said Sitkas were destroying the environment and landscape. "We can't call this a biodiversity plan if it doesn't contain an appropriate mix," she said.
Catherine O'Connell, chief executive, Irish Peatland Conservation Council, said the campaign was welcome, but she urged county councils to enforce existing regulations to protect wildlife habitats, particularly Special Areas of Conservation (SACs).
"I hope the awareness campaign is aimed at adults as well as children," she said, claiming that some county managers and officials needed this education more than children.
The Irish Wildlife Trust welcomed the plan as "a step in the right direction", but said a lot of work must now be done.
Launching the plan, Mr Roche said the department would be holding events in national parks and nature reserves in May and would be marking International Biodiversity Day on May 22nd.
"Notice Nature will involve everyone throughout the nation in our efforts to halt biodiversity loss, everyone from Government departments, industry, farmers, NGOs, down to the couple buying plants this spring in their local garden centre," he said.
