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Conservationists win fight to have more bogs conserved

For Release 9 September 1999

At the Atlantic Biogeographical meeting in Kilkee in Co. Clare, Ireland's performance in relation to the designation of habitats as SAC's was found insufficient for all types of bog and peatland occurring here as well as for most other habitats such as machair, limestone pavement and sites for Atlantic Salmon.

The Commission will therefore be requesting that Ireland designate more raised bogs, blanket bogs, fens and bog woodlands as SACs. The move was welcomed by the Irish Peatland Conservation Council, who have been campaigning to have more bog SAC's designated for the past 18 months. Dr Peter Foss, Chairman of the group was present at the meeting, to argue the case for increasing the area of peatland designated as SACs. "It's a very significant decision which was based on the scientific importance of this habitat in Ireland - where 51% of the European resource occurs. To protect the geographic range and variation in our bogs more sites will have to be proposed by Dúchas".

The meeting was hosted by the Paris based Nature Topic Centre who co-ordinated data for the 9 participating countries, namely Ireland, UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, Germany and Portugal. Ireland's performance when measured against the area of SAC's put forward by these countries and was found lacking.

Ireland's performance was insufficient. For example 30% of the remaining intact raised bogs had been put forward as SACs. The Irish Government were hoping that they would get away with this level and adopted a no compromise policy with IPCC in relation to designation of more sites before the meeting, even though within Europe we hold the greatest quantity of this habitat type (51%). Dr Foss presented arguments for designating more raised bogs as SAC and these were accepted by officials from the Nature Topic Centre. They will be recommending to the European Commission that it is imperative the Ireland designate more raised bogs as SACs before the middle of 2000 when a follow up meeting will occur.

The arguments were that as Ireland possesses the largest quantity of raised bog in Europe, we must protect a large quantity as SAC's. Already in this country we have lost 92% of the habitat. It is unacceptable for Ireland to suggest only conserving less than 30% of the remaining conservation worthy area of 23,527ha. By their nature raised bogs are vulnerable to exploitation. The extraction of peat destroys the habitat, and current research shows that they cannot be re-created within a reasonable time span. IPCC will be campaigning to have all of the remaining raised bogs designated as SACs so as to ensure that the habitat and its wildlife is secured for future generations to enjoy.

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