Nature restoration will need farmers, family farms, and grazing animals, so where is the funding?

Irish Examiner

10 hours ago

A few weeks ago, I visited the Daniels dairy farm near Kilmoganny in Co Kilkenny.
Bryan, Gail, and their three children have 250 dairy cows, high bushy hedgerows, lots of buzzing insects, and interestingly have not used chemical nitrogen for almost two decades. Gail brings added value to their farm income with her range of dairy soaps, Bó Bar.
They want to pass on to their children a farm that is resilient, nature-positive and productive.
Like all farm families, they are conscious of the impact of dairying in particular on climate, nature, and water.
They tell me that many of their peers knew things had to change long before the threat of the removal of the nitrates derogation had become real.
Earlier this month, the Government launched its public participation process for Ireland's first national nature restoration plan, and with it an online portal ( restorenature.ie) where they are seeking public and stakeholder views on how we might collectively and collaboratively realise this big and exciting challenge.
Much of the innovation brought about by the Daniels on their farm was achieved quietly and without much tangible recognition or reward for its co-benefits for nature and water quality.
Like me, they are more than a bit miffed with some of the commentary around the notion of ' rewilding', the idea that nature can be restored by simply abandoning land and allowing natural succession to take place.
The reality in Ireland is that most of our land is privately owned and actively managed.
During my time as minister, I visited many farms and saw our National Parks and Wildlife Service itself move more and more into the space of conservation grazing.
With forestry, we hear much now about 'the right tree in the right place', but perhaps less acknowledgement that 'the right animal in the right place' can have immense benefits for nature; on our semi-natural grasslands, on the Burren, in clearing scrub and maintaining coastal sites.
As minister, I was able to provide the NPWS with money to acquire land for nature; to extend existing national parks, buy two new ones, create new nature reserves and build a portfolio of land that is simply of value for nature.
But the State can't become the default buyer of such land, or land that is being abandoned due to lack of succession in farming.
It doesn't currently have the resources to manage an ever-expanding portfolio.
This is why we need a resourced nature restoration plan that not only informs the next CAP Strategic Plan but is embedded into it.
The NRP must also get into the belly of our Water Action Plan, our Climate Action Plan and crucially, our National Development Plan.
The State and the EU must put in place funding to provide long-term incentives for farmers to implement bespoke farm-scale measures that will benefit nature, water quality, and carbon sequestration and help us meet what are now mandatory nature restoration targets.
Nature portion of the fund raided by State
Already the signs are not good.
In its review of the National Development Plan, announced in July, it transpired that the Government had raided the nature portion of the €3.15bn Climate and Nature Fund for other purposes. Nature wasn't even mentioned.
At the same time, in the draft EU Budget for 2028 to 2034, the Commission is proposing a 20% reduction in CAP funding, with money being diverted instead towards increased spending on weapons.
One of the greatest challenges to reaching our nature restoration targets over the next decade will be abandoned land, in our uplands, on peaty soils and in coastal areas.
All of the farmers I have met want to be part of the solution, but they see little by way of the certainty they would need to have the confidence to participate in new schemes.
European Innovation Partnerships like Farming for Water and the Breeding Waders EIP, and EU LIFE Projects like Wild Atlantic Nature, are fantastic as they offer results-based payments to farmers to make improvements for nature and water.
Farmers like Bryan and Gail Daniels want to hand on a farm that is profitable and works with nature. File picture
But they cease after five to seven years, leaving no incentive to continue these actions.
Only long-term funding schemes, coupled with good advice and support, will help us achieve our collective ambition.
Back on the Daniels farm, I talk to Bryan and Gail over a cup of tea, and they tell me their wish is to hand on to their children a farm that works with nature, is profitable, and offers a good quality of life to whoever is farming it.
Whether farming in Co Kilkenny or on less productive land, farmers need to feel that they are part of the nature restoration journey; they need to be paid for their work for nature and know that generational renewal goes hand in hand with the renewal of nature.
The Government must part-fund this work and fight in Europe to rescue the next EU budget from the arms industry and put money instead into the pockets of the farm families and rural and coastal communities who will be on the front line in restoring nature on land and at sea.
Our food security and resilience from extreme weather events is surely more important than drones and missiles.
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Landowners must be rewarded in State's nature restoration plan
Senator Malcolm Noonan is a Member of Seanad Éireann on the Agricultural Panel