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How You Can Make a Difference and Help the Peat-Free Garden Campaign

Below is a draft letter you might like to send to Minister Síle de Valera, Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands and who is responsible for protecting peatland Natural Heritage Areas (NHA's) and Special Areas of Conservation (SAC's) in the Republic of Ireland. Alternatively to make your letter more personal we have given some additional points you could include at the end of the draft letter.

Minister Síle de Valera's department have to date not established enough SAC's to protect the full range of raised bogs in Ireland. Also the proposed NHA network of raised bogs which was established under the Wildlife Act 2001 has still not been notified to landowners - which means that many sites continue to be damaged by various forms of peat extraction. Government action is urgently needed on these two issues.

Your voice could help us put raised bogs on the Ministers agenda in this election year.

If you do send a letter we would appreciate you sending on a copy to us as well.

Síle de Valera, TD
Minister for Art, Heritage, the Gaeltacht and the Islands
Department of Art, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands
43 ­ 49 Mespil Road
Dublin 4

Dear Minister de Valera,

I am writing to you in relation to the conservation of raised bogs in the Republic of Ireland. There has been an alarming disappearance of these precious habitats in the last century. Only 8% of the original area of raised bogs in Ireland remain. These bogs account for 51% of raised bog habitats remaining in Europe. As we have such a significant resource of raised bogs in Ireland, these must be given your department's highest protection status.

This can only be achieved if the remaining areas of intact raised bogs are designated as Special Areas of Conservation (SAC). Under the EU Habitats Directive, all vegetated raised bogs, even degraded ones, are worthy of the SAC designation.

As Minister for Heritage, it is your responsibility that a representative sample of raised bog are declared as SACs to adequately reflect the extent of this resource within the EU. As a concerned citizen, I request that you designate the additional 31 raised bogs put forward by the Irish Peatland Conservation Council as SACs. This must be done as soon as possible in order to prevent further damaging activities to these habitats of European importance.

In addition, raised bogs that have been designated as proposed Natural Heritage Areas (NHAs) by Dúchas need full legal protection. To date, 14 sites that have been designated as NHAs have been damaged by moss peat extraction. Under the Wildlife Act (2001) areas designated as NHAs were to be given full legal protection, however, this has not yet occurred and precious raised bogs are being damaged.

Yours sincerely, etc

Additional facts you might like to use in your letter:

* Ireland originally had 308, 742ha of raised bog. Today, only 25,189ha remains, which represents 51% of all the raised bogs found in Europe.

* To date, the Minister has only designated 30 raised bogs as SACs.

* The EU Biogeographical meeting held in 1999 found that Ireland had not designated sufficient raised bog SACs under the EU Habitats Directive.

* Ireland was asked to designate more raised bog SACs at the 1999 Biogeographical meeting. The Minister has consistently refused to do so.

* A joint IPCC / Irish NGO initiative undertaken during 20001 recognised a further 30 raised bogs of international conservation value that should be designated as SACs.

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