MICHAEL VINEY has been writing about it for years, Éamon de Buitleár made black-and-white films about it and David Attenborough brought it all home to us in full colour, but a survey carried out for the Heritage Council last month found that only 18 per cent of Irish people know what "biodiversity" actually means, with no increase in public awareness levels over the past three years. As Michael Viney writes in the Wild Irelandmagazine published with this newspaper today, the terms ecosystem or biodiversity "spell out the need to respect the whole of the rest of nature – not just butterflies, blue tits, charismatic whales, lions and meerkats, but all the teeming invertebrates that clean up our messes, clean our water, pollinate our foods recycle the soil's nutrients''.
The only crumb of comfort from the Heritage Council’s research is that more people realise that biodiversity is valuable in economic terms for the services it provides to us free.
“Polar bears may hold cures for osteoporosis, kidney failure and type 2 diabetes,” said Joanne Pender, of the Irish Wildlife Trust. “If these disappear, they will take their secrets with them.”
Three years ago, as Michael Viney notes, the National Parks and Wildlife Service reported to the European Commission on the conservation status of 59 habitats and some 100 vulnerable species we are obliged to protect by EU legislation. While about half the species were doing well, the same could be said of less than one-tenth of their habitats. “The loss of active raised bog in the midlands, of hay meadows and unspoiled sand dunes, of unpolluted water in the rivers and wetlands, is the most evident roster of decline in habitats that once were Ireland’s special pride,” he says.
All of this is undeniable. So also is the fact that, if it were not for the requirement to comply with EU directives, things would be in an even sorrier state. Indeed, Ireland had to be prosecuted in the European Court of Justice for its abject failure to protect raised bogs – one of our most endangered habitats. Not only has 99 per cent of the original area of peatland been lost through heavy exploitation over the years, but one-third of the remaining tiny fraction has been lost in the last decade as a result of turf-cutting, drainage, afforestation and burning.
It is against this alarming backdrop that Minister for the Environment John Gormley recently imposed a ban on further turf-cutting in 32 protected areas of raised bog, even for “domestic use”. His action has provoked the wrath of a relatively small, but widely spread, vested interest in the midlands – and its case for a continuing exemption is being supported by Fine Gael’s heritage spokesman, James Bannon and even by the Labour Party leader, Eamon Gilmore .
As we mark Biodiversity Week, in this the UN’s International Year for Biodiversity, we need to take responsibility for ensuring the survival of threatened species and habitats. Early adoption of the long-delayed second national biodiversity action plan would be a good start.