In Ireland the Fate of Farming and Nature Are Intertwined—and So Are the Budgets
Fintan Kelly
Senior Landuse Officer, Irish Environmental Network
Just as many habitats and species depend on sustainable farming practices for their survival, so too do many families depend on nature and the public money that supports its custodianship. The Nature Restoration Plan is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to secure a bright future for nature and farming alike, but it can only deliver if politicians and farming leaders are honest with farmers and work in their best interests. Earlier this week, Minister Heydon attended the IFA AGM, where he “confirmed and reiterated that obligations under the Nature Restoration Law (NRL) must not be funded through CAP, directly or indirectly, and that any funding for the NRL must be ‘new’ money.”
The Environmental Pillar has long held the position that the Nature Restoration Law’s (NRL) new ambition requires new and additional funding beyond the Common Agricultural Policy, with voluntary participation for farmers in ambitious agri-environmental schemes. There is total alignment between ourselves and the main farming organisations on these points. However, the CAP must be integral to Ireland’s Nature Restoration Plan. The Minister’s suggestion to the contrary is misleading and risks frustrating and alienating the very farmers we will need to deliver Ireland’s Nature Restoration Plan on the ground.
Firstly, the CAP accounts for 75–80% of Ireland’s biodiversity expenditure. Ireland’s flagship agri-environmental scheme, ACRES, alone allocates €1.5 billion (2023–2027) to over 50,000 farmers. Farmers are already involved in schemes that will be integrated into Ireland’s Nature Restoration Plan. We know this because the main habitat restoration targets for farmland within the EU’s Nature Restoration Law are a repetition of existing legal obligations, which farmers are already actively delivering through agri-environmental schemes. The CAP therefore already funds NRL-aligned actions (e.g., ACRES, Space for Nature ecoscheme); separating the NRL from CAP misleads farmers by creating confusion around the CAP’s essential role in Ireland’s Nature Restoration Plan. As the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is the lead authority on the elements of the Nature Restoration Plan linked to farming (e.g., Article 11 on agricultural ecosystems), the Minister should appreciate better than anyone the clear alignment between the two.
The CAP also includes safeguards and conditions which protect nature from unsustainable agricultural practices; an obvious example would be safeguards against hedgerow removal. Ireland’s most recent report on the status of habitats and species protected under the Habitats Directive shows that 90% of protected habitats (Annex I) are in unfavourable status, with agriculture as the main pressure. 69% of protected habitats are impacted by pressures such as overgrazing, land drainage, under-grazing and water pollution. The CAP will therefore need to continue to provide a key framework to help protect farmland biodiversity.
It’s therefore misleading to imply that there will be no direct or indirect connection between the CAP and the NRL. It also goes without saying neither the IFA nor the Minister are likely to advocate for the reallocation of existing CAP funding to a standalone Nature Restoration Fund. For Ireland’s Nature Restoration Plan to succeed, we will need clear integration between the two. This will require:
- Ongoing ambitious agri-environmental schemes in the next CAP (ACRES 2.0).
- Strong mandatory environmental safeguards within CAP.
But we will also need new ambition above what CAP has traditionally delivered. This will require:
- New and additional funding for farmers outside of CAP for more ambitious nature restoration.
Minister Heydon is, of course, right to say that ‘new’ money is needed, but his government is yet to put new money on the table. In fact, the only new budget line for nature, the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund, was created by the last government with assurances that it would partly fund the NRP. Up to 22.5% of the fund can support designated environmental projects annually (max €3.15 billion cumulative by 2030), but not so much as a cent has been ring-fenced for nature or farmers between now and 2030 under the National Development Plan. Given the obligations of the NRL are legally binding, why haven’t we seen Ministers Heydon, Healy-Rae and Dooley fighting to secure new funding for farmers, foresters and fishers?
Farmers have shown time and time again that they are willing to lead on nature restoration if they are treated with respect and provided with voluntary schemes that allow them to manage their land sustainably and make a living. I have no doubt that farmers will rise to the challenge again if they are given the tools to do so. And the reality is that while nature is in crisis, so is Irish farming. We have both a generational renewal crisis and a viability crisis. Despite a third of Irish farmers being over 65, the majority of farms have no successor in place. Many family farms are loss-making without subsidies, and even with public money, the margins are small, requiring many farmers to have a second job off-farm. Public payments such as agri-environmental schemes comprise 70–90% of total income across most sectors. 40 % of Irish farmers aren’t just involved in ACRES because they want to save the planet for future generations; many of them are involved because they want to have a farm to pass to the next generation. Agri-environmental schemes are one of the best mechanisms we’ve ever come up with to deliver public goods like biodiversity while also ensuring that family farms stay out of the red. The Nature Restoration Law should be seen as an opportunity to secure new funding and long-term funding that will allow farmers the kind of security they can bank on in increasingly uncertain times. It’s an opportunity neither environmental or farming leaders can let slip from our grasp.
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