Friends' Work

// DOUBLING OF SHEEP STOCKING APPEALED TO EU

PRESS RELEASE
FRIENDS OF THE IRISH ENVIRONMENT
18 JANUARY 2012
The European Commission for Agriculture, Dacian Ciolos who is visiting Dublin this week, has been asked to refuse Ireland's request to require a doubling of the sheep stocking rates in Disadvantaged Area and to require that this stock be held for six months rather than the previous three months.

According to a FIE spokesman, the proposal undermines the Minister for Agriculture's assurance that the intensification of agricultural to meet ambitious 2020 production targets can be done sustainably.

'Basing payments on stocking rates rather than areas farmed is biased against the smaller less intensive farmer who protect the environment.'

The group claims that high stocking rates have led in the past to a host of environmental problems, including erosion, eutrophication, soil degradation, and increased carbon emissions.

"This damage was confirmed by the European Court of Justice in 2002 in a judgement against Ireland condemning this overgrazing because of its impact on Birds. The Directive under which this case was brought requires "upkeep and management in accordance with the ecological needs of habitats inside and outside the protected zones." Exemptions that would under law have to be granted would be so extensive in the Disadvantaged Areas as to render the process meaningless.

The group points out that the impact of the requirement is not only environmentally damaging. 'The new requirements will put great pressure on a community of rural farmers who are already hard pressed through national economic austerities. It will be another factor in forcing the restructuring of rural land holdings with consequent depopulation and the erosion of longstanding familial association with archaeological sites leading to an increasing rate of their destruction.

These changes are part of Ireland's resistance to the reform of CAP which is trying to shift away from payments for each animal held which led to many environmental problems and instead to provide payments based on the land farmed.

The request to the Commissioner comes after the lobby group Friends of the Irish Environment failed last month to have Irish Minister for Agriculture drop the proposal.

Verification and further information: Tony Lowes 027 74771 / 087 2176316

Read the Letter to the Commissioner http://www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.net/index.php?do=library&action=view&id=176