By Oonagh Duggan, Head of Policy and Advocacy at BirdWatch Ireland
I often tell people that, were it not for the Birds and Habitats Directives, we would have no nature left in Ireland. These powerful European Union laws – also known as the Nature Directives – are the best in the world and protect some of our rarest species and habitats.
Sometimes, those same people push back and remark that, despite this fact, Irish nature is still terribly degraded. Yes, 90% of our internationally important habitats are in poor condition. Yes, 63% of our 212 wild bird species are in danger. Successive governments have let nature wither by allowing sectoral policies to run rough shod over it.
Birds of farmland are the fastest declining group of birds. Species include Curlew, Lapwing and other breeding waders are on life support but even common birds are at risk too like the Common Kestrel which is disappearing. Birds of lakes, turloughs and estuaries are also in trouble. These mostly migratory waterbirds are sensitive to development, disturbance from people and the effects of climate change. Birds of peatlands and uplands are as special as the peaty habitats they live in but they are struggling. They include the Hen Harrier also known as the Skydancer for its spinning, twisting dives in the air to attract a female. Seabirds like the Puffin and Kittiwake are globally vulnerable and breed in Ireland in high numbers and we have a duty of care to them.
There have been some great restoration projects though which have had good results. The numbers of migratory terns have skyrocketed at Rockabill Island, Kilcoole beach and Lady’s Island Lake through National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) conservation projects, run by BirdWatch Ireland. These ‘sea swallows’ travel from as far away as West Africa and even Antarctica, choosing our small offshore and lake islands and sandy coastal beaches to lay their eggs.
Funding from the now-threatened LIFE fund in Europe allowed BirdWatch Ireland to restore marshy habitats for the Red-necked Phalarope, aka the ‘fairy bird’ of Belmullet, which is now breeding there again. This very cool bird spins like a dervish in ponds to bring the insects up to the surface to eat, and it’s the male who incubates and tends to the chicks after the female lays eggs and abandons him and her clutch.
The Irish government is known across Europe for its good results-based agri-environment schemes to restore nature. Farmers have taken to these schemes but funding will need to be bolstered in the coming years to really bear fruit and in recognition of the work that farmers are doing.
These hopeful stories, show what funding, science, building good relations and nature protection ambitions can achieve. But critically the habitats are there in the first place to allow restoration to take place. We have something to work with. And this is because of the Birds and Habitats Directives.
These Nature Directives provide a robust legal framework to protect the most important sites for nature – called the Natura 2000 network of Special Protection Areas for birds and Special Areas of Conservation for habitats and species. They require government to protect all bird species, bats, otters and more. They prevent the killing of birds, destruction of nests and disturbance to birds during their most vulnerable time- when they nest.
Worryingly though, the Nature Directives are under significant threat in Ireland and across Europe. Some governments and industries don’t like them at all, because they get in their way. The current language used around Europe is of “simplification” and “deregulation” – code for getting rid of, and weakening of, pesky laws that appear to constrain progress and profit.
The Irish government too wants to simplify them. Look around – do you really think we can’t achieve our housing targets without bulldozing our rarest habitats and concreting over important feeding areas and nesting grounds of our most threatened birds and wildlife? How much more pollution can our rivers and lakes take?
This is the second time in 10 years that there’s an attempt to undermine these laws. A Fitness Check of the Nature Directives by the European Commission in 2016 concluded that they were fit for purpose and that better implementation and investment was needed. Now a “Stress Test” has been initiated by the Commission which aims to see if nature can be protected in a cost-efficient way! The attacks on nature are relentless and they set back progress on restoration not only for wildlife but for our resilience against flooding, sea level rise and to mitigate climate change.
What would help to make the Nature Directives work better is government investment in them. This includes management plans for protected areas that include local communities, ecologists at every layer of government including local authorities, more staff in NPWS, and policy that works with nature and not against it.
I spent the first week of May in Albania representing BirdWatch Ireland at the Nature and Climate Task Force meeting held by the BirdLife Europe and Central Asia partnership. We visited the Vjosa-Narta lagoon and its long beach area flanked with pine forest. This is a globally important site for biodiversity, a protected area host to thousands of birds and many other species and a buffer against sea level rise. But Jared Kushner and other developers have been given permission by the Albanian government without any environmental assessments to build a luxury resort at Vjosa-Narta which will wipe out the habitat and the wildlife. Albania wants to join the EU in 2030 has not integrated the Birds and Habitats Directives into its laws. The future of this lagoon and its amazing wildlife is grim as a result.
The Nature Directives include an emergency brake to protect habitats, birds and wildlife. They are currently being framed as the obstacle, when the real obstacles are shockingly inadequate investment in implementing them and in nature itself. Changes to the Directives could wipe out vitally important areas for nature, undermine restoration plans and upend smart planning to protect the natural buffers we rely on against climate change. The Nature Directives are part of our critical nature infrastructure and restoration plans. We need them for a stable future, resilience against climate breakdown and to support our wellbeing.
Sign the Hands Off Nature petition and read this article published in The Irish Times on May 21st 2026- Natura 2000 Day.
