The best evidence that Ireland is failing, miserably, to conserve and restore its natural heritage, on which our livelihoods and lives ultimately depend, has come repeatedly from the state body tasked with protecting it, the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS).
In a 2019 report to Brussels on our protected habitats and species, the highly professional science section of the NPWS stated that “85 per cent of habitats are in unfavourable (i.e. inadequate or bad) status, with 46 per cent of habitats demonstrating ongoing declining trends”.
The Dáil declared a ‘climate and biodiversity emergency’ that same year. Green Party leader Eamon Ryan warned at the time that it meant “absolutely nothing unless there is action to back it up. That means the Government having to do things they don’t want to do”.
Today, Ryan’s party is in government, and Green Party TD Malcolm Noonan has been Minister of State with responsibility for the NPWS for 18 months. You might imagine that it’s all-hands-on-deck now to reverse this chronic failure to properly manage our landscapes and their creatures.
This does not appear to be the case. Last month, a senior official in the EU Commission’s environment directorate gave a damning indictment of our continuing shortcomings across most environmental areas. We may indeed be moving backwards, with new measures restricting environmental objections to planning applications.
Aurel Ciobanu-Dordea told an online Environment Ireland Conference: “The rule of law and its protection, especially when it comes to the environment, is one of the biggest priorities of this Commission. We believe radical change of behaviour is necessary, because it is highly unusual for an advanced society like Ireland to witness such conducts.”
Hopes of a change in apprach had been raised last year when Noonan appointed Professor Jane Stout and Micheál Ó Cinnéide to carry out the independent review of the NPWS promised in the Programme for Government. They are among the most respected figures in Irish environmental science, and environmental policy, respectively.
Benchmarking study
They interviewed hundreds of stakeholders, including 80 NPWS staff; they received 135 written submissions from institutions, NGOs and individuals (declaration of interest: including this writer); they launched an online public survey that garnered almost 3,000 contributions. They commissioned a benchmarking study comparing the NPWS with similar services.
Last June, they submitted their “Final report on the Key Recommendations and Findings” to the Minister. It was expected, from the Terms of Reference, that it would be published shortly afterwards. They had told stakeholders that their submissions would also be published, if they so wished, as well as the study and survey outcomes.
The June report remains unpublished but details have emerged into the public domain. It is a frank and forensic analysis of the NPWS. The authors find the organisation is not fit for purpose, and “cannot meet current obligations, let alone plan for and respond to future challenges and legislation.”
“There needs to be a fundamental overhaul of structures and governance, a clear strategic plan and leadership to implement it, better internal and external communications, and re-energised teams, working together effectively inside and beyond the organisation.”
While the authors recognise that serious problems derive from chronic underfunding, it is clear that the NPWS’ unwieldy and opaque structures and culture, if unreformed, would remain a major obstacle to achieving its aims even if resources were increased.
‘Don’t rock the boat’
The tragedy is that many NPWS staff, especially among rangers in the field and the science section, are highly qualified and very committed. But they frequently complain of their proposals being ignored, or even silenced, by a bureaucracy whose motto appears to be ‘don’t rock the boat’.
Seven months later, the report has still not been shared with the public.
Since submitting their report last June the authors have responded to several sets of comments from within Noonan’s department which claims their June version was a ‘draft’. However, it is understood that the authors have not altered their core findings and recommendations.
It’s quite acceptable for the NPWS as a whole to have sight of, and fact-check, such a review before it’s published, yet very experienced staff members say they have still not been consulted. But it would hardly be acceptable for an independent report to be rewritten by those it’s reporting on.
Noonan now says that he will bring a follow-up ‘strategic action plan’, developed by a retired civil servant, to Cabinet, with the review itself, this month. He will only then publish the review, though he had on occasion promised to publish it much earlier.
It is vital that the review, and associated materials, are published now so that the public can judge for themselves whether this ‘action plan’ really follows through from the incisive proposals put forward by Stout and Ó Cinnéide, or blunts their edge. Their review points the way to good outcomes for nature and people, and must not be buried.
Or is the Green Party in government not willing, or not able, to do what it wanted governments to do when in opposition? Perish the thought.
Paddy Woodworth is the author of Our Once and Future Planet: Restoring the World in the Climate Change Century (Chicago 2015)