9 minute read
MARINE CONSERVATION
Live S. vermicularis with maerl, Merc, 2008
Protect Marine Natura 2000 Sites
By Regina Classen, Bigger and Better Campaign Project Officer
Ireland’s marine protected areas (MPA) are not working. The miniscule ‘network’ of marine Natura 2000 sites, meaning Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and Special Protection Areas (SPAs) designated under the EU Habitats and Birds Directives, respectively, covers only 2.4% of the Irish marine territory. This is far below the internationally agreed target of protecting 10% of our waters by 2020 (the Programme for Government even supports the EU Biodiversity Strategy target of 30% protection by 2030, a more than 10-fold increase of current designations).
Though miniscule, the current network would still be a valuable asset in the fight against the climate and biodiversity crises – if it was effectively managed. Unfortunately, MPAs do not automatically exclude harmful human activities from taking place within their borders and in many instances the MPA boundaries seemingly only exist on paper.
The legislation underpinning management of Natura 2000 sites is the Habitats Directive. It calls for any activity that is classed as having ‘likely significant effects’ on a protected site to be subject to an Appropriate Assessment. If the assessment concludes that the activity will have adverse impacts on the integrity of the site, the activity should not go ahead. While the provisions of the Habitats Directive are quite clear, EU Member States, including Ireland, have been particularly loose in their interpretation of ‘likely significant effects’. For example, the National Parks and Wildlife Service have adopted a policy whereby an activity may be licensed if it causes continuous disturbance on up to 15% of a protected habitat (if the disturbance is not continuous, even more area may be damaged).
This policy, along with many other mismanagement issues, have actively contributed to Ireland’s failure to effectively protect Natura 2000 sites and bring the MPA network to an overall ‘favourable conservation status’ as required under the Habitats Directive. We have compiled these management issues in a report available from our website. Three case study examples are discussed.
Irish Wildlife Trust Report on Ireland’s Failure to
Protect Marine Natura 2000 Sites
In Blacksod Bay SAC, County Mayo, a rare and fragile worm reef was destroyed by benthic dredging, most likely by scallop dredgers, at some point between 2008 and 2018. The SAC, first proposed as one in 1999, should have had management measures in place to protect the reef by 2005 at the latest. A management plan was finally implemented in 2015, ten years after the deadline and potentially too late to save the reef. According to the plan, the location of the reef as well as vulnerable seagrass and maerl beds were closed to scallop fishing. The protected sedimentary habitats in the bay, however, were still allowed to be fished dangerously close to the now damaged reef. Scallop dredgers use heavy metal cages that are dragged across the seafloor. These dredges have very significant, and well documented, adverse impacts on seabed habitats and should not be allowed in a protected area.
Another case is from Roaringwater Bay SAC where rare and fragile maerl habitat (maerl is a type of hard alga, locally referred to in Ireland as ‘coral’ although it is not technically a coral) is in a poor condition due to exposure to mussel excretions from longline aquaculture. While some mitigation measures are in place, including a 30 m buffer zone between maerl and the longlines, it is questionable whether this is enough of a buffer to truly protect already impacted habitats from further deterioration. Management has failed here once again. Mussel aquaculture has the potential to be sustainable and absolutely compatible with a marine protected area, but proper site selection is key.
Blacksod Bay SAC, County Mayo, Lough Swilly SAC, County Donegal
Roaringwater Bay SAC, County Cork In Roaring Water Bay it was found that excrement from the mussels was fouling the maerl reefs.
In Lough Swilly SAC, the now rare native oyster is potentially threatened by licenced aquaculture of an invasive Pacific oyster species. This species was able to escape shellfish farms and form an established population in the bay. Instead of reacting to this threat and halting all aquaculture activity, shellfish farming is ongoing.
The Habitats Directive Article 6 (2) states that ‘Member States shall take appropriate steps to avoid, in the special areas of conservation, the deterioration of natural habitats and the habitats of species as well as disturbance of the species for which the areas have been designated, in so far as such disturbance could be significant in relation to the objectives of this Directive’. Far from avoiding significant deterioration, the Irish authorities have considered many damaging activities to be non-significant to the integrity of protected sites and have allowed them to go on mostly unchecked. A crucial mistake, as marine habitats have declined steeply within the past six years.
If we are to designate 30% of the Irish marine territory as marine protected areas by 2030 as a means to avoid further environmental breakdown, we will have to do better than paper parks.
You can read our full report on our website at iwt.ie/what-we-do/campaigns/ bigger-better.
ACTIVITY UPDATE By Kieran Flood, IWT Coordinator
Autumn is a time of great change in nature and here at the IWT, we have also been adjusting and changing. This autumn sees us settling into a new office as well as a new way of delivering our programme of work. As you will read in our Campaign News, we have been busy continuing our advocacy work, campaigning for nature protection and restoration in Ireland both on land and in the ocean. A good deal of our campaigning work can continue in a socially distanced manner - raising awareness through our digital media, direct lobbying of public representatives and engaging in consultations on nature law and policy. Our training and educational events are another story however and we have had to adjust to continuing this work in the virtual realm. At the time of writing, our public nature events are still suspended pending review of the Covid-19 situation but our training workshops continue and are being conducted virtually. See a brief report on the ups and downs of virtual training workshops in our People for Bees update.
Our organisation is made up of members, volunteers, branches across the country and the board of directors, all supported by a small staff in our office. In mid-March, our IWT office closed due to the lockdown. This affected our ability to monitor phone calls, run our online shop and post out our members’ magazine, amongst other things. Thankfully, after this unusual period of summer hibernation, the office has re-emerged - but in a new location. So we would like to inform our members that our new postal address is 8 Cabra Road, Dublin 7, D07T1W2 and our new phone number is 01 445 7259. Our core office hours are Tuesday to Thursday 9 to 5. Our general information email address is info@iwt.ie and for queries about your membership subscription or address changes, you can email membership@iwt.ie.
Photo of the Month update
IWT members and followers will be familiar with our Photo of the Month competition through which our members and the public submit an amazing array of Irish wildlife photographs each month. A winner is picked through a very competitive public vote on our Facebook page. From September onward, people will be able to enter their photo by email as well as through Facebook. This will open the competition up to members who may not be familiar with or may not use Facebook. If you wish to take part, you can submit your photo to the following email address: photocomp@iwt.ie. Before entering, please check the full rules of entry on our website at iwt.ie/what-we-do/ communication/iwt-photo-of-the-month/
People for Bees Update
April to September is normally a busy time for the IWT People for Bees programme – conducting school visits, providing info at summer festivals, running our flagship event at the National Botanic Garden and most importantly, visiting communities across Ireland to deliver training in bee conservation to help people promote and protect their local bee populations. This year, things looked a lot different. With schools closed, summer festivals cancelled and in-person group training workshops not on the cards, we had to adjust.
We focused our efforts on the core of the programme: community workshops. We worked with some of our funders such as Cork and Donegal County Council to develop an online alternative to our much-loved community training days. From midsummer onwards, we delivered virtual People for Bees workshops to communities in counties Cork and Donegal and we are pleased to report it has worked out well. The virtual workshops are delivered using video call software and rather than running large online webinars open to hundreds of people, we instead have focused on small group workshops, working with one community group at a time.
There are many advantages to this new format. The video call format allows the group to get together at a time that suits them. They essentially invite us into their living rooms where they learn about the wonder of Ireland’s bees from the comfort of their couch or discuss their own ideas for bee friendly actions in the village from their kitchen table with a cup of tea. Video call does not lend itself to full day workshops so we have split our workshops into two sessions, which allows groups to digest the first half and then regroup for part two at a later date with new questions and new ideas.
There are of course many disadvantages. Explaining how to identify two rather similar species of bumblebee is much easier (and more enjoyable) when outdoors with the bee in question right in front of you. The same goes for teaching people about habitats. Like everyone, we have been forced to embrace the virtual online world to continue our working and social lives. There are many advantages to the video call format for community training. It reduces travel time and carbon emissions and allows for more regular meet ups with groups. Yet nothing beats meeting communities in person in their local hall for a face to face discussion about the importance of bee conservation and for a cup of tea and a chat about the wildlife of their local area before heading out on foot to go see some bees. As society slowly returns to normal, we will certainly retain a lot of the new virtual components of the programme, combining them with the old format for the best of both worlds.
