Ireland faces case for not stopping turf cutting on protected bogs

Ireland could be referred to the European Court of Justice unless action is taken to stop the cutting of peat within Special Areas of Conservation (SACs), the European Commission has warned.

SACs are designated to conserve raised bogs and blanket bogs under the EU's Habitats Directive.

In a statement, the European Commission said Ireland has taken action to stop turf cutting in SACs, but said that "cutting activities are still ongoing and enforcement action appears to have stalled".

While restoration activities have begun on some raised bogs, the European Commission said it "is too slow given the importance of this priority habitat and its precarious state".

"With regard to blanket bogs SACs, there appears to be no regime controlling ongoing cutting with the cutting for domestic use exempt from control," the commission said.

It is 11 years since the commission first raised the issue with Irish authorities, which breaches European law under the Habitats Directive and national regulations.

The commission said it was issuing a notice now “after a long dialogue”.

Friends of the Irish Environment, who had presented a Petition to the European Parliament’s Petitions Committee on turf cutting in Ireland’s Special Areas of Conservation in June 2010, welcomed the resumption of the case against Ireland.

It said an initial Reasoned Opinion, the last step before referring a country to the European Court of Justice, was issued by the Commission in June 2011 but according to FIE, the Commission pressed the ‘snooze button’.

It added that a statement from the Commission said ‘After a long dialogue with the Irish authorities, for the reasons mentioned above, the Commission has decided to issue an additional reasoned opinion to Ireland.’

FIE said Ireland’s Article 17 Reports to the European Commission every 7 years have themselves recorded the damage to the protected sites. Information released to the Irish Wildlife Trust earlier this year showed that ‘of the 57 SACs, turf-cutting was monitored by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) at around one third of the sites (18 SACs) in 2021.’

FIE also said that it filed a ‘Request For Action’ under the Environmental Liability Directive which was accepted by the EPA on 24 February 2022, assuring FIE ‘We will be in contact in due course when we have progressed and investigation and have further information.’ 

FIE Director Tony Lowes said that ending all peat extraction was the low hanging fruit of emission reductions.

"The comparisons with the continuing destruction of the Amazon rainforests are increasingly accurate," he said.