Sir, – The proposed EU nature restoration draft law is aspirational but needs hard cash to be transformed into positive results for biodiversity, climate and water (“The Irish Times view on the EU nature restoration law: a plan worth supporting”, June 19th). Since the 1992 common agricultural policy (CAP) reform, environmental legislation and policy has largely looked to the CAP for funding to deliver agreed aims with respect to land use. It has been a tough 30 years of interminable argument and uneasy, unsatisfactory compromise across every member state of the EU. Much of the content of the nature restoration proposal has its roots in EU biodiversity policy, including the Natura directives, water legislation, soil and forest policy.
For these areas, there is no dedicated EU funding.
As long as this remains the reality, the implementation of the nature law essentially will be dependent on funds originally designed to support farm income or regional development and on state aids where member states are so minded. That’s been and remains the problem. The challenges to achieve the ambition of the law are vast. To give just one example, soil organic matter levels are low across most arable areas of southern Europe and to reverse the trend of ever decreasing levels will require an investment of up to €5 billion annually for the foreseeable future. Yet all the challenges need to be addressed if the EU is to preserve not just its biodiversity and water but its very agriculture and forests. It would be much more useful to have the funding debate now than to argue about the amount of land which might be rewetted in the knowledge that such monies might never be available. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL HAMELL,
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Courtlands,
Dublin 9.
Sir, – How did we get to the point where some of our public representatives in Ireland and Europe are actively opposing the proposed the EU’s nature restoration laws? They say that the measures could lead to the loss of agricultural land and ultimately food shortages. This is strongly denied by those supporting the plans. If nature is allowed to collapse, there will be no agriculture. It sounds to me like turning down the offer of lifeboats on the Titanic. – Yours, etc,
CAROL SCOTT,
Shankill,
Dublin 18.