“Over the past century, humans have been stripping the colour, texture, voice, richness & complexity out of the environments we occupy” Speaking in support of #Seanad Biodiversity motion last week, I called on Gov to match words with action & embed biodiversity in legislation 1/2

2/2 The State should also make active use of tools like Environmental Impact Assessment to protect biodiversity. In Seanad debate I highlighted #SprucedUp report which found that of 17,000 forestry licence applications only 3 had EIAs! I also supported amendments from @LNBDublin

I also spoke about how if we are serious about biodiversity we need to stop looking for special derogation that allows us to ignore EU limits on nitrates! The spraying of nitrates as described here by @GweebarraG is another example of why we need radical change in forest policy. https://twitter.com/gweebarrag/status/1325693550365986816