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THE STATE WAS warned over three years ago that part of its environmental criteria used in the forestry licensing process may not be strong enough to ensure forestry does not have a negative impact on the environment.
Noteworthy can reveal that the Department of Agriculture (DAFM) continues to use these guidelines despite warnings from a senior official in the European Commission.
Humberto Delgado Rosa, the director of the Natural Capital division in the Commission’s environmental directorate, outlined his concerns in a December 2017 email to Colm Hayes, Assistant Secretary in the Department of Agriculture (DAFM) with responsibility for forestry.
The email – released to Noteworthy under EU Freedom of Information rules - followed a meeting between the EU body and the Department the previous month on a range of issues related to Ireland’s forestry model.
The Minister of Agriculture, Charlie McConalogue, confirmed the meeting took place during a recent Dáil debate. He said his Department, under which the Forest Service sits, proposed loosening rules on planting on marginal land (known as the 20% rule).
Introduced in 2010 with a view to protecting nature, the rule ensures that a maximum of 20% of any forestry plot is planted on marginal land with little farming value. The majority of private forestry owners in Ireland are farmers.
High nature value land
While this land has low agricultural quality, it is often of high nature value (HNV) and contains pockets of rich biodiversity, home to many species that cannot survive in a more intensive agricultural landscape or in a plantation forest.
According to McConalogue, the Department told the Commission at the November 2017 meeting that the Forestry Service had introduced a more comprehensive system of environmental assessment into the afforestation approvals process.
This, he said, was underpinned by new documents to guide forestry applicants on the environmental requirements for afforestation and the types of land allowed for afforestation, released in December 2016 and in October 2017 respectively.
McConalogue said the Department told the Commission that “on the ground” implementation of the documents was “sufficient to remove the 20% rule”.
Conservation groups and biodiversity experts have argued that removing the 20% rule would damage habitats protected under EU law and undermine HNV and peatland habitats.
Last October, a Noteworthy investigation into the environmental impacts of the Irish forestry model revealed that licences for plantations continue to be approved on or near peat soils and other HNV areas.
Concerns were also raised in the investigation about the quality of environmental assessments undertaken by the Forest Service in granting forestry licences.
At the time, the Department told Noteworthy that the two documents referenced above help to “ensure that afforestation is in line” with requirements under the current Forestry Programme.
However, as recognised by McConalogue in his recent Dáil statement, the Commission told the Department that it did not believe the two documents provide a clear system to reassure it that environmental risks from afforestation were being adequately assessed.
The full contents of the reply, released via FOI, reveal more details of the response from Delgado Rosa that the EU body told Noteworthy is “an informal document, which does not reflect the position of the Commission”.
https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/4017843/
Process ‘not sufficiently clear
In his email sent in early December 2017 to DAFM’s Hayes, Humberto Delgado Rosa sets out his concern that the two documents do not ensure that the State is meeting its requirements under EU environmental law.
“It was not clear to us from reading these documents how the obligations stemming from EU environmental directives, such as the Habitats and Birds Directives and the Environmental Impact Assessment and Strategic Environmental Assessment Directives will be guaranteed,” he said.
He also outlined concern that one of the documents about environmental requirements for afforestation has “no reference to any national legal provisions or to the scientific data forms, conservation objectives or established measures” for Ireland’s protected nature sites.
In addition, the Commission official said that it is not clear from the documents what kind of ecological information needs to be provided for the environmental assessment process. He added that it is also not clear at what stage environmental considerations need to be taken into account in the licence application process.
“Our conclusion from a closer look at the two documents is that, in their current state, these do not appear to provide a sufficiently clear or stringent system to reassure us that environmental risks from afforestation are a thing of the past,” he concluded.
In a statement, the Department said that the “two documents are intrinsically linked” and “went through exhaustive consultation”, with the document on land types allowed for afforestation was re-issued in October 2017 with improvements to its methodology.
The environmental requirements for afforestation document “remain unchanged” apart from a clarification regarding the definition of water feature, the Department added.
It said that it has put its focus on training registered foresters, with several circulars also issued since 2017 outlining updated environmental requirements as part of the forestry application process.
The Department said that the documents form “just two components of a multi-component process” that also includes public consultation and a detailed environmental assessment process that can “significantly alter the project, reduce its footprint, or [lead to] outright refusal, on environmental grounds”.
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British media should calm down a bit….Every week on BBC and Ch4 they have Trump bashing and Russia bashing TV documantary programmes…..Getting a bit Orwellian…After leaving EU they will need a few friends to bring them into sunny uplands of post Brexit Britian…
@John McQuirk: Actually in Orwell’s resignation letter to the BBC…His reason for leaving was because he felt government was using BBC to broadcast propaganda to India….Even today not sure the BBC is always totally objective as their legal charter promises….
@pc_comments: He was probably right. But your handle ‘pc_comments’ and ill-conceived invoking of Orwell belie an Alt-Right racist who thinks they are ‘raging against the machine’, your ilk are two-a-penny, and prone to abusing the memories of those who would find your views abhorrent.
@John McQuirk: “prone to abusing the memories of those who would find your views abhorrent”
Who, exactly, are those whose memory is being abused?
@Dessie Deratta: Orwell himself for one. Unless you’re trying to tell us he would have been a member of the Redpill movement if he were around today.
@Harry Whitehead: Well Animal Farm where the most wise animal was a donkey…..Partly inspired by Orwell’s bring disillusioned with socialism and Russian communism….While fighting in Spanish civil war…. Not sure Orwell would be lefty Guardian reader today either….
@Harry Whitehead: If he were around today he’d be seriously impressed by how prescient he was.
Airstrip One wasn’t exactly a beacon of democracy or “liberal values” – was it?
@pc_comments: Donkeys are the epitome of wisdom and insight.
@Dessie Deratta: Donkeys answer to every question in animal farm was. “Donkeys live a long time”
@pc_comments: If you knew anything about Orwell you’d know his opposition to communism was due to his hatred for all things totalitarian, not because he was some sort of closet right-winger. He leaned left his entire adult life.
He hated fascism just as much if not more than he hated communism. He did, of course, take up arms against Franco’s fascists and got shot in the neck doing so.
It’s always hard to ventriloquise the dead but you can be almost certain Vladimir Putin would be much higher on his $hitlist than the BBC would.
You can also be almost sure that he would despise those who misappropriated his work, as you did so elegantly in your original comment.
Russia now invokes the tired old Dr Goebbels reference.
Russia can hardly be surprised that it is the obvious candidate for accusation . It has previous firm and the circumstances point on a highly indicative but not conclusive basis to Russia.
The alternative theories posed by Russia that this was a distracting stunt to divert attention away from Brexit seems implausible.
There is a rogue State quality to Russia where the Rule of Law is treated with naked contempt and disregard.
@Michael Lang: Please back you assertions up with some facts or you’re just another sheep who has fallen for the MSM brainwashing.
@Michael Lang:
That’s the problem when you’ve been caught out blatantly lying to the international community several times (Crimea, MH17 etc.) – they’re less likely to believe you the next time.
@Michael Lang: bolloxology
@Derek Fergus: Please back up your assertions that the MSM are wrong all of the time? Lazy populist assertion.
@Derek Fergus: look at all of the circumstances, look at Russia’s previous form, look at the status and position of the primary victim, consider the alternatives, apply Occam’s razor and then make a common sense judgment. The perpetrators were hardly likely to leave a Russian calling card.
I am making no asserion that Russia committed this crime but I’m of the opinion that compared to any other alternative, including the far fetched notion that Theresa May instructed this crime so as to distract from Brexit, Russia is the more obvious and the more probable suspect. We all know that Russia has a shockingly bad record in ignoring the law and act8ng extra legally.
@Michael Lang: For someone who whines about “bots” you are obsessively focused on Russia threads and appear to be waiting 24/7 to get in as soon as a thread opens.
US Embassy maybe? Pentagon bot?
@Dessie Deratta: seems to be more any thread than just Russia, almost as if he is giving his opinion in the news!!!
@Walt Jabsco: “international community”!
Lmfao
The EU plus US and a few allies are not the “international community”.
Based on population alone Russia plus China have a better claim to that status.
You are recycling MSM gibberish propaganda….
@Dessie Deratta: you evade the points and attack me. This topic is nit about bits, it is about human beings using a highly toxic and publicly dangerous nerve agents in an attempt to murder a man and his daughter. Someone committed the attack, that is fact and real, and the circumstances point indicatively, plausibly and probably to Russian involvement.
As for the US, there is a rogue President and inadequate security services performance to protect against domestic threats in the US as well as external threats.
@Dave O Keeffe: Yeah…maybe he doesn’t have a life – always a possibility.
@Michael Lang: I have no idea why you imagine the topic is “nit about bits”.
I don’t even know what that means…but it is no more meaningless than most of your posts.
@Dessie Deratta: I have a broken screen, “ not about bots”.
It would take a minimum level of intelligence to figure that out and I accept your incapacity to do so, which is why I have clarified this for you.
@Dessie Deratta: go placidly among the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence
@Michael Lang: Sorry Mick… “nit about bits” didn’t immediately strike me as meaning “not about bots”!
Call me stoopid.
Oh……. you already did!
@Dave O Keeffe: “go placidly among the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence”
I’ve tried that loads of times but it doesn’t seem to work for me!
@Derek Fergus: ‘MSM’ and ‘sheep’ – the calling cards of tinfoil-wearing loons and cranks everywhere…
@Michael Lang: whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty.?
@Dessie Deratta:
So what are you trying to say? When Vlad said there were no Russian ‘little green men’ in Crimea he was lying to “the US, the EU and a few allies” but telling the truth to everyone else?? Some mental gymnastics right there lad!
Oh, and “lmfao” is so 2012.
@Harry Whitehead: ‘MSM’ and ‘sheep’ – the calling cards of tinfoil-wearing loons and cranks everywhere”
Nah. Conspiracy theories about Russian assassinations are the calling card of loons and cranks and tin-foil wearing bullshit merchants.
@Walt Jabsco: No..he was just telling fibs…like the US/UK were about Saddam’s WMDs.
No mental gymnastics required…at least not on my part….
@Dessie Deratta: I’d recommend a change of name then
@Dessie Deratta:
So what makes you so certain he’s not “just telling fibs” now??
@Walt Jabsco: all any rational person can do is compate british form for lying on Iraq, Libya, Yemen and Suria against Russian form for lying on Crimea and Georgia. The brits are responsible for almost 1.5 million deaths. At the rate they are going, history books will compare them to the Nazi regime.
@Cal Mooney: favourably obviously
“We have told our British colleagues that ‘you’re playing with fire and you’ll be sorry’.”
Would you care to explain exactly what you mean by that remark, Mr Nebenzia?
@George Sheils: it’s unlikely to be a stern letter of protest.
@George Sheils:
Well they did produce an animation of missiles striking Florida, but according to the Puteenies on here it’s the west who’s being provocative.
@Walt Jabsco: The only person who things there is missile gap in favour of Russia is the crazy guy John Bolton….
@pc_comments:
Oh that’s ok then, it wasn’t provocative at all…..
@George Sheils: Hopefully he means that if the West uses some false flag to attack Russia than the West will be incinerated….
Hopefully the West takes him seriously – or we WILL be incinerated.
@Dessie Deratta: laughing derisively at your alarmism and over statement. Such silliness.
@Michael Lang: So, you are sitting in front of your laptop laughing derisively?
High point in your life I’d guess….
@Dessie Deratta: you crack me up. You have a refreshing and endearing gormless quality to your comments. It’s like Dougal in Father Ted. Give me a few more to laugh about.
@Michael Lang: I’ll have to google some jokes for you…
There’s no so called civilised country silencing and jailing its opposition, whether its business, political or media like Russia do. For Russia to even bandy about the word ‘propaganda’ on its so called high horse, is frankly and simply hilarious!
@The Dons: man, you dont know anything about what is going on in british allied countries like saudi arabia, israel or ukraine then. Even tweets are enough justification for assassination, execution or life in prison. We saw what happened whistle blowers in the north of this island like Pat Finucane. All dead. The brits are murderers.
@Cal Mooney: as I said apparent civilised countries, obviously Saudi Arabia and apartheid Israel wouldn’t fit that bill. Using old examples from the past has nothing to do with the present either. Do we include Germany too for its crimes over 70 years ago?!
This is one for us to stay out of, let the big boys fight it out between themselves, this one is none of our business………….
@Sean Higgins: Coward.
@John McQuirk: Idiot
@Dessie Deratta: Agreed, he is. People who roll over to have their bellies tickled because they are afraid of the consequences of standing up are idiots, and so beyond contempt it is ridiculous.
@Sean Higgins: with the Russians being permitted to build the largest structure in any Western country despite a 30% reduction in the number of Russian nationals living or based in Ireland and the huge reduction in trade between Russia and Ireland.
@John McQuirk: “People who roll over to have their bellies tickled because they are afraid of the consequences of standing up are idiots, and so beyond contempt it is ridiculous.”
Indeed they are. Covney and Leo and FFG rolling over and over again for NATO is utterly beyond contempt.
@John McQuirk: we are supposed to row in behind Britain because they are up to their armpits in espionage, let MI5 and MI6 sort it out and while they are at it they can get the fück out of our country.
Chemical Vlad’s propaganda machine is on a full spin cycle. Just like they did when they were balls deep in the Donbass in Ukraine, they’re going full steam on the misdirection, deflection, denial, “it aint us gov”.
The old over used Hitler/Nazi comparison. Godwin’s rule… someone should tell him Stalin killed more Russians than Adolf
@Rear Admiral: Vladimir Putin is nothing more than a disgusting dictator, his contempt for democracy and freedom of the press is vile, held up as a paragon by Alt-Right bro’s who get off on naked bareback horse-riding.
@John McQuirk:
And by the usual anti-establishment malcontent west-bashers across the spectrum who in reality don’t realise how lucky they have it compared to many other countries…
@Walt Jabsco: You said it, the greatest conundrum of the second decade of the 21st century, pro-Trump trolls who love Vladimir Putin, despite the latter’s interference in the former’s Presidential elections.
@John McQuirk: …in retaliation for the formers country’s interference in elections not only in Russia but across the globe.
Yeah it’s a conundrum that any sane person could get worked up about some social media ads by Russia – or is it the suspicion that they leaked the TRUTH about Killary stitching up Bernie Sanders?
@Dessie Deratta:
Wrong. It was the DNC not Clinton.
Are you saying Chemical Vlad’s hackers leaked the emails for the good of the american people and to support freedom of speech?
Here is a few fun facts ,
In September 2017 – the OPCW signed off on the fact that Russia had destroyed all of it`s chemical weapons programs.
The Russian Chemist who revealed the existence of Novichok published a book with it`s formula in 2008 saying it can be made with ingredients from fertilisers and pesticides. – Turns out, that not only states can make it, but anyone with an amazon account and a decent lab can make it…
@Pearse Mc Mullen: RT ROFL. Great joke. I think it is safe to say that you no between very little to nothing of chemical warfare and the agents used. Call of duty doesn’t count.
Will they ever all just go for a few points and a good chat and work through this difficult time with each other by talking it out over a few jars
@courageous: it would depend on what is added to the jars.
@courageous: the british engurland fan boys would blame the russians for the hangover the next day. Just read their bbc government propoganda site daily with the amount of hategul articles againt russia gor the last 2 years, while suggesting that israel is always right in their use of military oppression against the palestinians. Even the scottish parliament call the bbc the bullsh*t broadcasting corporatiin.
Anyway, we can see where Western hypocrisy might lead…
“Trump threatens China with $100bn more in tariffs as response to Beijing’s ‘unfair retaliation’”
“Unfair retaliation”!
Isn’t that more or less what Coveney said when the Russians expelled a diplomat in response to our expelling one of theirs without any legitimate reason?
It would appear that the Western Oligarchy will happily see us all wiped out rather than surrender their global hegemony.
@Dessie Deratta: the West being wiped out! You give good entertainment.
@Michael Lang: So then Mick…how do YOU think a nuclear war might end???
@Dessie Deratta: “western oligarchy” ahem, Russia and China? Putin is a dictator being backed by oligarchs and China is well on its way to becoming one!
Won’t be long before the Russians will be trying the old Jedi mind trick, “there was no poisoning here”
@League of shadows: borris started that one by claimimg he was 100 percent certain the russians did it based on the feedback from portin downs. Porton downs then called him a liar. No one believes the brits anymore. They have cried wolf once too many times.
One Question for the Putinistas. Why has Julia Skripal refused to speak to anyone from the Russian Embassy?
She made a public statement today but made no mention of seeking assistance from the Embassy.
And if you listen to the Phone Call to the cousin. It is the most un-natural phone conversation one could imagine. Just listen to it. To start with she says her full name, “this is Julia Skripal”. Now ask yourself have you ever felt the need while telephoning a family member or even a friend to use your surname? It would normally be something like “hi it’s Julia”!!! And for someone talking to a close relative it’s very formal and far too short. Plus the recording came from the FSB. Why would they feel the need to tap the cousins phone?
@Mick Jordan: Tapped a phone? – she called her cousin on a strange mobile phone, of course she is going to say who she is. Remember , the recipient of the phone wouldn`t know she was being tapped
@Mick Jordan: I mentioned before it being rather suspicious that the daughter of a traitor was in a relationship with an fsb agent and having listened to the call you mention I feel now Julia may not be a victim after all……I’m saying no more for awhile as the trolls wil get me
@Mick Jordan: She just wants to get the hell out of engurland alive. MI6 thought they had taken her out. She is not even allowed to see her family. The brits release a written press statement from Borris Johnston , sorry i mean Yulia, saying she is doing fantastic and everything is great. When and if she and her father are ever released, we will here the truth. But i suspect the brits will never release her father. As long as they have him, his daughter will never be free to tell the truth about what the brits did to them.
@Mick Jordan: muck, 2 weeks ago you claimed she and her father were definitely brain dead with no hope of recovery. You also said you were 100 percent certsin that it would be shown to be a rusdian nerve agent. How are you feeling about those claims today?
Russia sounds like a petulant and protesting child caught red handed and blaming what actually happened on anyone and everyone else. It’s acting guilty, perhaps because it is guilty.
@Michael Lang: Nah…that’s Boris and his Foreign Office who can’t even manage to tell the same lies this week as they told last week!
@Dessie Deratta: Boris is a total buffoon but that does not exonerate Russia of the attempted assassination.
@Michael Lang: yeah, the british foreign office are the bastuons of truth and democracy. Can you tell us why they spent half of thursday deleting false twitter claims they had made against rusdis. Or should we ignore that too and just take your word for it that the brits wouldnt and havent lied about any part of this case so far.
@Cal Mooney:
You have done nothing but lie about this story since it broke.
@Cal Mooney: certainly more so than Russia.
Propaganda a la Goebbels, is concocting lies and presenting the lies as State sanctioned truth. That fits Russia better than the UK.
As far as I can see there was an actual attack with a nerve agent although the Russians initially took the position that even the attack was unproven.
@Michael Lang:
Then they denied there was any such thing as Novichok until that lie crumbled…
@Walt Jabsco: No, they just asked for proof behind the accusations the brits threw at them.. but apparently according to the brits their word is enough. They also asked the world to ignore all the british lies about Iraq, libya and yemen. Two thirds of the worls nations told the brits to get lost.
@Cal Mooney:
The Russian foreign ministry claimed Novichok never existed in Russia. More of your BS exposed.
@John Cassidy: their british government opponents are the bacteria that feed off human faeces. Whats your point.
Bollooooooooòoooooooox!!!! By both! Trust no one!
It’s like that film training day… Its not what you know is important but it is what you can prove….we all know this was Russia but it will never be proven as that’s the way this game works.
@Geoff Murphy: we all know thie brits are lieing from the start on this. Otherwise, why would the british have to spend so much time deleting tweets that they made false claims in.
@Cal Mooney: as much as you appear to be up to date on things you conveniently forget Buffoon Mr BJ. Understandably this wouldn’t happen in the motherland but here its a drawback of a free open democratic society….idiots can get to the top too
@John Cassidy: Newsflash me old mate,
They aren`t in Europe
The only thing I agree with the Russian administration on is this cannot be proved beyond a reasonable doubt which is precisely the point the various trolls point out. That unfortunately doesn’t mean Russian state is innocent nor does it mean they didn’t do it.
I agree with Russia on this one.
Give me proof and facts. Not allegations made up by those idiots in the UK
Anyone who buys into this Russophobic narrative spun by Britain and NATO is a gormless fool. We would have a lot more to fear if Putin was in fact unstable. It’s actually the Western powers who look hysterical in this story. And please stop spouting things about Ukraine and Syria which have not actually been proven.
@@kudzu_dub: he is a dictator and denied Russian troops in the Ukraine for several years until he then admitted it, not to mention flight MH17.
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