The serious decline in bird species on agricultural land was highlighted in Kilkenny yesterday. The demise of the corn bunting and the virtual extinction of the grey partridge were given as examples by Dr Liam Lysaght of the Heritage Council.
He told the European Environmental Advisory Council's annual conference that there were 10 species in danger which were based on agricultural land. He said any attempt by the EU Commission to reverse the trend, would only be successful if nature conservation objectives were incorporated into agricultural policy. "While the intensification and specialisation of agricultural production has caused much reduction in the wildlife interest of the countryside, the irony is that agriculture provides the single greatest opportunity to achieve our objectives to maintain biological and landscape diversity in the countryside," he said. He added that some aspects of farming were beneficial to nature conservation and should be rewarded. "The important role that farmers potentially play should be promoted in a much more positive manner."
He said the EU needed to make clear what it wanted farmers to achieve and that measures and incentives for this should be given to farmers. "We have many parts of the country where the positive links between agriculture and nature conservation still exist, and some fine-tuning of policy and programmes would be of enormous benefit."