Guest blog by Colum Delaney, RSPB NI Advocacy and Campaigns Officer
The new State of Nature report throws up big challenges for everyone who cares about nature and the protection of our natural environment.
These are challenges which require environmental organisations, government, business and the wider public to work together if we’re to tackle the stark declines in species and habitats that the report reveals. You can read the UK report, and the NI version, here.
We’re seeing evidence that the NI government recognises the need for more joined up thinking, particularly in the Draft Programme for Government (PfG) 2016-21 – the roadmap for the Executive’s next five years in power. However, as always, the proof will be in the ambition, delivery and success of the PfG’s associated ‘action plans’.
Back in July RSPB NI clearly set out our vision for the future during the PfG consultation process.
We called for the protection of our best wildlife sites (both on land and sea) and the sustainable management of our countryside. Another key element of our response included the need to connect more people in Northern Ireland with nature to improve physical and mental well-being.
At the moment our immediate concern is ensuring the new Environmental Farming Scheme to incentivise farmers for protecting biodiversity, which is due to open in February 2017, is adequately funded. Worryingly, funding has not been guaranteed from Westminster as it misses the deadline for the Treasury’s Autumn Statement. This delay means that many farmers have fallen out of previous agri-environment agreements and are no longer able to undertake the same level of wildlife friendly farming.
There is a feeling that ‘Brexit’ changes everything, yet changes nothing. Many of the challenges that nature faces, like climate change, pollution, habitat and species loss, remain issues regardless of Brexit.
However leaving the EU will undoubtedly create uncertainty around environmental legislation and funding. The RSPB is fighting to ensure that whatever environmental legislation may be replaced or unpicked, whatever replaces it is at least as strong.
Recently, there has been a lot of media coverage on the impact of agriculture on nature. Leaving the EU means leaving the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) - which hasn’t delivered for farmers or nature. We now have the opportunity to work in coalition - government, environmental organisations and the farming sector - to create a future for agriculture that produces safe, healthy food, sustains and restores nature, protects natural resources like soil, air and water and also enables farmers to secure a fair return for their produce and supports employment in rural areas, contributing to a diverse rural economy.
While this is undoubtedly a big challenge, we believe these issues can be solved by working together. The State of Nature report is full of inspiring stories which demonstrate that, with the right conservation interventions and partnerships, we can start to turn around many of the declines witnessed in recent decades.