A law for MPAs … finally!

15 years since the European Union first obliged member states to designate a ‘coherent and representative network of marine protected areas’, and over ten years since this network was due to be in place, the government has published its ‘general scheme’ for a Marine Protected Areas (MPA) Bill. This is the initial draft of legislation that, it is hoped, will be passed this year to allow for the identification, designation and, ultimately, actual protection of areas of the marine space. Readers of Irish Wildlife will be aware that this is something we have been pushing for some time! Now that it's here we will be working to make sure that the law is strong enough to result in the protections that are so badly needed. In reading the Bill, we have to put ourselves in our own shoes in five- or ten-years’ time and ask ourselves: “is the government doing what is stipulated in the law?” We cannot take for granted that this or any future government will want to protect the marine environment, we have to be able to hold them to account, through the courts if necessary. We therefore must read the Bill with a studied and sceptical eye!

How laws are made can be opaque and/ or difficult to follow. But step one is scrutiny of the Bill by the Oireachtas committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which is chaired by the Green Party’s Steven Matthews. It is made up of 13 other TDs and Senators from different parties (and none) who are entitled to hold hearings and invite in officials or experts for cross examination. In this case, the committee invited in the civil servants who have drafted the Bill, the technical expert,

Deer

The issue of deer in Ireland is perennially controversial. Ireland has no deer management strategy and does not monitor deer numbers so we don’t know with any degree of confidence what the populations of the various species are. A new study from the Lab of Wildlife Ecology and Behaviour in University College Dublin however shows that there have been “marked increases in relative population density and extensive range expansion for each of the three deer species across Ireland” since the turn of the century (see the Wild Ideas story in this issue). The issue vexes different people for different reasons: certain rural-based TDs think they’re a hazard on the roads, many farmers believe they spread tuberculosis to their cattle (although there’s no evidence for this),

Professor Tasman Crowe who led on the production of a hefty report into MPAs in 2020, the wind energy industry and nongovernmental organisations (including the IWT). The fishing industry were also invited but were not present. We attended with our colleagues in Fair Seas, BirdWatch Ireland, the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group and the Irish Environmental Network.

I was encouraged with the level of interest shown by the parliamentarians who turned up. So, what do we think of the Bill? Unfortunately, it falls far short of what is needed. There is no clear commitment to reach at least 30% coverage of ocean area by 2030 as stated in the Programme for Government, there is no mention of the need for ‘strictly protected’ areas which is a target of the EU’s Biodiversity Strategy, there is no system for monitoring and review and no clear mechanism for deciding how it will be decided whether activities in MPAs will be compatible with protecting the species or habitats for which they are designated. We also do not know who will ultimately be responsible for managing, monitoring and enforcing the rules in MPAs. Even on this point alone, we know from experience that if there is any doubt about who’s responsibility it is to do a job, the job simply won’t be done. The committee is due to publish its report at the end of February, the bill will then go to go the floor of the Dáil and Seanad (and back again) where amendments can be tabled and the issues debated. We hope our concerns can ultimately be addressed – watch this space for updates throughout 2023. commercial foresters say they’re eating all the trees and ecologists worry that they’re preventing any natural regeneration of native trees and other vegetation.

In January, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine held a public consultation on deer. Our view is that it’s time that the non-native deer species, namely sika and fallow deer, were designated as alien invasive species. This would oblige the government to come up with a plan to control their numbers. We also think we need a separate plan for the native(ish) red deer in Killarney National Park. We need greater focus on the terrible state of the National Park and a plan to expand the woodlands, with the deer, so that both can thrive. However, this is only possible if deer densities are low. A study in Scotland has found that densities of the (relatively large) red deer must be no more than 3.5 animals per km2 to allow tree seedlings a chance of survival. We would never be enthusiastic about a culling programme for any animal, after all it is not the fault of the deer that they were transported here while their natural predators were exterminated. Nevertheless, if we are to put the health of ecosystems first then there is simply no other option.

We have also highlighted that a longerterm solution to culling is needed. This means starting the process of returning healthy populations of native wild predators to the landscape. This is not a simple equation of ‘just add wolves or lynx’. Predators need to be at a sufficient population themselves to have a controlling effect on prey species, and reintroduction of predators should not be solely for utilitarian purposes. But we need to get serious about the task of rebuilding healthy, resilient and functioning natural ecosystems.

Campaig Ning From Brussels

By MEP Grace O’Sullivan