Minister almost too good to be true for nature conservation

The real test for Deenihan will come in co-opting his fellow ministers and departments to the wider care of nature

IRELAND MUST GO ON. It can’t go on. It’ll go on. So too, we must hope, will our thought and effort for nature. In that Beckettian spirit, my new year’s resolution is to learn to love the word “biodiversity”. Half a century ago, the first, deadening official label for Ireland’s wildlife habitats was “Areas of Scientific Interest” – nothing to do with ordinary people. Then came the EU’S Habitats Directive, the SACS, SPAS and so on, and Brussels could be blamed for forcing nature conservation on Ireland. No native politician, with or without a farming constituency, would say it was actually a good thing in itself, or that he or she personally cared about flowers, birds or bees.

Then, 20 years ago at Rio, with the world alert at last to the pell-mell extinction of species under way, Ireland signed up to the Convention on Biological Diversity. “Biodiversity” was shorthand for all the myriad and multivarious life on the planet, from genes to whole ecosystems (and including Homo sapiens). Despite the word’s prolific publicity since, awareness of why biodiversity matters remains far too dim; no improvement here since 2007, says the Heritage Council. “What,” asked one writer to this newspaper memorably, “has biodiversity ever done for me?”

“Ecosystem services” is the new coinage (in every sense) for what nature does for people. Some of them are costed with impressive specificity in the Government’s plan, Actions for Biodiversity 2011-2016, published last November. Such striking totals – ¤1 billion from the invertebrates that keep the soil fertile, ¤20 million from nature’s baseline pest control, ¤220 million a year for pollination, ¤385 million for clean and drinkable water. Sustainable farming could yield at least ¤150 million a year in “public utility benefits”, and forestry a further ¤25 million a year with better ecological management and more broadleaved trees. This is, alas, the way we have to talk – cash values for nature.

The liberation of nature conservation from the Department of the Environment has been a welcome move. Its return to Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht has sparked one good omen in the cover of the action plan – a spirited painting of bog-cotton dancing in the breeze, done by the Minister himself.

The Minister, Jimmy Deenihan, seems, indeed, almost too good to be true. He comes from near Finuge on the north Kerry road to Listowel. This is strong GAA country and Finuge is the first home of Siamsa Tíre, the national folk theatre. The Minister was a local PE teacher and GAA football star – but also organised nature walks for the children.” And – this in print – he “always had a strong interest in nature and [has] spent a lot of time walking in the mountains and bogs around [his] home”.

So, for once perhaps, the right man, with a political history in agriculture, tourism and rural development. With Europe twisting his arm, he is enforcing Ireland’s promises on peatland conservation – even, he claims, on his own family bog.