The Green Party senator from Galway, Pauline O’Reilly, has welcomed approval of the Nature Restoration Law by the European Union’s Environment Council.
The decision was taken at a meeting of European environment ministers in Luxembourg on Monday this week, where 20 of the EU’s 27 ministers adopted by qualified majority vote the text agreed by the European parliament in February.
Twelve of Ireland’s thirteen MEPs voted in favour of the NRL last February, despite the Irish Farmer’s Association (IFA ) voicing concerns about how the EU Regulation will be implemented at a national level.
“This is a good day for nature and a good day for the millions of people who have understood and campaigned for the vital importance of protecting and restoring our natural world. It also underpins the importance of having the Green Party and the Green Group in the European Parliament,” said the Senator O’Reilly. “We championed the Regulation through its complicated passage to this point, but not without listening and responding to the concerns of others and bringing other politicians with us to support it.”
"The only way we can protect nature and biodiversity is if we work together, in our own local communities and as a wider European community. Now our job is to ensure that there are adequate funds and supports in place to ensure that the people at the very coalface of nature protection are well paid and that their livelihoods are also protected,” O’Reilly added.
The Irish Farmers' Association issued a statement warning that there is uncertainty around how the new law will be interpreted, with IFA president Francie Gorman telling the Irish Farmer’s Journal that farmers “will not stand for farmers’ property rights or their right to farm their land being undermined.”
Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan, along with Malcolm Noonan, Minister for Nature, Heritage and Electoral Reform, spearheaded an initiative in May signed by 11 EU Member States calling on other government to join them in adopting the Nature Restoration Law proposal.
“Europe is the fastest warming continent and is facing unprecedented impacts from the intertwined nature and climate crises. This is a decisive step towards addressing the very real risks we are already seeing, from desertification to flooding,” said Ryan.
The landmark Nature Restoration Law commits EU countries to reverse biodiversity and nature loss over one fifth of Europe’s landmass and sea area by 2030. It is expected to affect less than nine per cent of land in Ireland.
