Sir, – Your editorial "Burning and hedge cutting" (January 23rd), and its statement that "new ways are urgently needed to engage public opinion much more positively in conservation issues", touched a real chord with the Heritage Council.
The council has consistently highlighted to Government the poor national record of landscape management to which you refer, as well as the need to engage the public much more positively in conservation issues. We have put forward many proposals that would achieve distinct improvements in both those regards.
The most recent of these arose from a recent conference in the Comeragh Mountains organised by the Irish Uplands Forum. This led to a proposal to Government for the establishment of 10 uplands partnerships in areas the length and breadth of Ireland. These partnerships would provide a framework within which local communities and interested parties could work together to help resolve the ongoing issues on all aspects of land management in the uplands. Married to that is a council proposal to government as long ago as 2010 that Ireland sorely needs a new empowering and enabling legislative framework in the shape of a Landscape Ireland Act. Under this proposal, the Heritage Council proposed adding a “layer” of community participation and responsibility in agreeing future management actions for our landscapes, in line with the requirements of the European Landscape Convention.
The council also has parallel proposals to revitalise rural towns and villages network, which are set out in our heritage manifesto. This details the real potential that is offered by investing in community-led approaches.
Our hope has to be that the communities, in both rural and urban Ireland, can influence a new government to provide enhanced levels of funding and the capacity to make these proposals a reality. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL STARRETT,
Chief Executive,
The Heritage Council,
Church Lane,
Kilkenny.
Sir, – The Wildlife Heritage Bill to extend upland burning and lowland hedge cutting further into nature’s breeding season, if passed into law, would bring shame on our country.
It is incredible that a Government that promotes a green image abroad at every opportunity would countenance such further destructive and image-damaging activity. – Yours, etc,
IVAN DEACON,
Templeogue,
Dublin 16.
Sir, – The Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht should not enable our hedgerows to be cut and burned earlier in the spring and later in the autumn, as allowed under the the Wildlife Act. If Heather is gone come the summer, she will only have herself to blame. – Yours, etc,
ARTHUR LAPPIN,
Abbeyleix,
Co Laois.