Catchment News

‘Things must change’ – Citizen’s Assembly on Biodiversity Loss proposes over 150 recommendations

Wednesday 5 April 2023 – The Recommendations and Report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss – the first such national citizens’ assembly anywhere in the world – was launched in Dublin today. It contains over 150 recommendations that have the potential to dramatically transform Ireland’s relationship with the natural environment.

The report was produced as a result of seven meetings of the Assembly from May 2022 through to the end of January this year. It concluded with the 99 members of the Assembly agreeing 159 recommendations. These include 73 high-level recommendations and 86 sectoral specific actions and priorities.

Central to the report’s recommendations is the need for the State to take prompt, decisive, and urgent action to address biodiversity loss and restoration and to provide leadership in protecting Ireland’s biodiversity for future generations.

Further, the report expresses the Assembly’s clear disappointment at the State’s failure to adequately fund, implement and enforce existing laws and policies. The report states explicitly that this must change, and that sufficient funding and increased expenditure should be provided for enforcement and implementation of national legislation and EU biodiversity-related laws and directives related to biodiversity. The members heard that the government has declared a Biodiversity Crisis but has seen little evidence that this is being taken seriously.

The report also proposes a series of changes to the Constitution to ensure people have a right to a clean, healthy, and safe environment. In addition, the Assembly recommends that nature be provided with protections within the constitution to allow it to continue to provide the necessities of life including food, clean freshwater and air, as well as providing a clean and healthy environment for wellbeing now and in the future. Such recommendations follow a growing international trend highlighting the necessity to protect nature in order to protect humans.

Other recommendations in the report refer to actions in specific sectors such as agriculture; freshwaters; marine and coastal environments; peatlands; forestry/woodlands/hedgerows; protected sites and species; invasive species; and urban and built environments. There is a specific acknowledgement of the role of farmers as the custodians of the land possessing a rich knowledge and understanding of the environment, and that the agriculture industry must be supported in conserving and restoring biodiversity.

Commenting on the final report the Chairperson of the Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss, Dr Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin, said that it is now incumbent on members of the Oireachtas to study the report, consider its recommendations, and act upon them. She emphasised the need for urgency given the scale of the crisis that confronts us.

This report has been put together through the efforts of all members and the wide range of views and perspectives that we were fortunate to listen to, debate, and discuss over the course of the Assembly’s meetings. I want to thank all members who attended the Assembly, and all those who spoke at our meetings or made submissions. Those efforts are reflected in this final report.

The Assembly’s recommendations are a call to action. They ask us all to re-evaluate our current practices across the whole of society and in industry, agriculture, social enterprise, local government, national agencies and government departments. Future generations are depending on us to act now. Some sectoral interests and lobby groups may resist attempts to address biodiversity loss, but it is urgent that our policy makers, in particular our politicians, are supported in making bold decisions to protect, conserve and restore the natural environment in the interest of all of the people, present and future, of the island of Ireland.

The reassuring greens of our landscape mask the loss we are experiencing of so many key elements of our natural environment.

The figures that the Assembly heard are stark. And the problems are getting worse.

Things must change.

Chairperson of the Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss, Dr Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin

Learn more:

See the Recommendations and Report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss.

Section 1.12 of the report has specific recommendations made by the Citizen’s Assembly on Biodiversity Loss for freshwater:

1.12 Freshwater

Ireland has a rich network of rivers and streams (over 84,800 kms) and over 12,000 lakes which cover about 2% of its land area. They connect our uplands and coasts, and our urban and rural areas. Three decades of monitoring of water systems has shown the ongoing loss of water quality, which is severely impacting the biodiversity of our rivers and lakes and has a devastating effect on the quality of drinking water. The poor condition of our freshwater systems is an urgent problem that requires an immediate and coordinated national response. Suitable actions must be taken to reduce the impact of nutrients, particularly nitrates, on our freshwater systems.

• The management of our freshwater systems requires immediate action. It requires increased level of ambition, increased resources for Water Framework Directive implementation (and therefore aquatic biodiversity protection and mitigation), a focus on water quality and aquatic biodiversity outcomes, clarity on roles and responsibilities and accountability for achievement of the outcomes
• The State must provide a single body to oversee and co-ordinate the many relevant bodies that manage, implement, and enforce legislation and policies relevant to freshwater.
• There must be urgent increases in investment by Irish Water to build new and improve existing water treatment plants to prevent the unacceptable discharge of raw or partially treated sewage into any fresh or marine waters. The current timelines and targets are inadequate.
• The management of water catchment areas must be greatly improved, with assessments of water quality to be updated regularly to guide action on restoring water quality.
• Riparian buffer zones, related to agriculture, forestry, industry and extractive processes and urban development must be expanded and take into account local conditions to prevent nutrient and sediment run-off. Schemes must be put in place to incentivise landowners to protect waterways, with incremental subsidies depending on the width and quality of buffer zones.
• Local and other relevant authorities must be held responsible for maintaining and improving the conditions of rivers in their areas, working with each other and with State agencies, such as Office of Public Works (OPW), Coillte, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Inland Fisheries Ireland, industry, farmers, private landowners, community groups, etc. Furthermore, local authorities and landowners must maintain the highest standards to riparian zones along the rivers in their areas.
• It is imperative that penalties for polluting freshwater are significantly increased and enforcement considerably improved.
• Farmers must have access to continuous training and up to date research in actions and land management practices that protect freshwater biodiversity.
• The State must increase support for community groups and NGOs that are working on key projects to improve freshwater systems – e.g. support for Irish Rivers Trusts, group water schemes, angling and community groups.
• The 1945 Arterial Drainage Act is no longer fit for purpose and must be reviewed and updated in order to take proper account of the biodiversity and the climate crisis.
• Nature-based solutions must be included in State and community programmes to tackle flood management and should include whole of catchment area hydromorphology planning and restoration.
• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), supported by Inland Fisheries Ireland and an expert group, must conduct a complete analysis and survey of all catchment areas to develop a National Hydromorphology Plan.
• Motorway attenuation pools must be more widely used and incorporate the use of biodiverse wetlands. The forestry and extractive industries must have the highest standards of attenuation pools and sediment traps applied to their drainage activities.
• Soil sealing poses a growing threat to our waterways and hydromorphology through surface water run-off. New regulations must be developed to limit the permissible area of soil sealing around all new buildings and other developments that are subject to planning. All other surface finishes must be made of permeable surfaces