5 days ago
Stormont may have breached duty to protect wild bird sites
Stormont's Environment Department may have breached commitments to protect Northern Ireland's internationally important sites for the protection of wild birds, an investigation has found.
The Office of Environmental Protection, set up to monitor UK compliance with international law on nature after Brexit, said its inquiry had found potential breaches of protections at so-called Special Protection Areas (SPAs).
They are habitats chosen because of their importance for particular at-risk birds. There are 16 of them in Northern Ireland.
Lough Neagh is one such SPA. It is the biggest inland lake in Ireland and Britain and an important wintering ground for a host of different bird species, including whooper swans that visit every year.
It has been heavily polluted over the years by agricultural run off and waste water treatment.
The monitoring of SPAs used to be the responsibility of the European Union, but passed to the OEP in the UK after Britain withdrew from the EU.
The OEP's Chief Regulatory Officer, Helen Venn, said devolved administrations still had a legal obligation to maintain populations of wild birds and their habitats.
"One way in which they do this is through Special Protection Areas, which are legally designated sites that protect rare and threatened wild birds, such as whooper swans, puffins, and light-bellied brent geese.
"They are internationally important areas for breeding, overwintering, and migrating birds, and have also been shown to deliver positive outcomes for wider biodiversity.
"However, populations of wild birds continue to decline across Northern Ireland, with recent studies placing a quarter of birds found on the island of Ireland on the Birds of Conservation Concern Red List."
She said there has been constructive engagement with Stormont's Environment Department and some positive steps were being taken.
But she said the OEP investigation had identified "possible failures" to comply with environmental law including the proper implementation of recommendations by nature conservation bodies on the classification and adaptation of protected areas and general duty to protect and maintain wild bird populations.
Stormont's Environment Department, which sits within the Agriculture Ministry, now has a number of months to respond.
The OEP also looked at the protection of marine environments and found potential issues there too. They fall under the responsibility of Northern Secretary Hilary Benn and he has been issued with an information notice also, setting out the remediation that needs to take place.
The parties have two months to indicate how they will respond.
