Image: BirdWatch Ireland staff working with farmers to restore habitat for breeding Curlew.
Nature and the ever-growing list of stakeholders supporting the Nature Restoration Law can breathe a sigh of relief as the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) Committee of the European Parliament rejected attempts by conservative and right-wing groups to kill the proposed law in a very tight vote on Thursday morning [1].
However, as a result of party political games and continued attempts at undermining the law, not all compromises that had been negotiated were supported, resulting in a split on many issues. The committee eventually ran out of time, and after a three-hour session, the vote on the remaining amendments and the final report was postponed until June 27th.
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Oonagh Duggan, Head of Advocacy at BirdWatch Ireland said:
“The Nature Restoration Law offers the most significant opportunity to restore habitats in Ireland for the benefit of people by cutting greenhouse gas emissions and helping us adapt to climate change, and restoring wildlife populations including wild birds, pollinators and butterflies. Recently the European Central Bank highlighted the intrinsic link between nature and the services it provides us and the economy. ‘Destroy nature and you destroy the economy’ they said. It is very worrying therefore to see politics attempt to trump the science and the economic and wellbeing benefits of the proposed law. In the end it is people who will pay the price for these political games”
“There are several steps in the process still to go to accept and approve this law at European level and the outcome will have significant national ramifications. The draft law has already been weakened and BirdWatch Ireland is greatly concerned that it will be further weakened as we progress. We would effectively be shooting ourselves in the foot if there’s a weak law at the end of this. We call on Irish political parties to not only ensure that the national position on the law is strong but ensure that Irish MEPs support and vote for a strong law”.
[1] The Committee first voted on the amendment to reject the law completely with the result of 44-44 which meant it did not pass. [2] The Nature Restoration Law has received support from the wind energy and solar industry, scientists, the progressive farming community, European hunters, financial institutions, European mayors, an increasing number of companies and business associations, and over 800,000 citizens calling for an ambitious Nature Restoration Law through various campaigns, which were launched by the #RestoreNature coalition (incl. Avaaz), WeMove, the European Greens etc.
