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Welcome to the first FIE NEWS from Friends of the Irish Environment. We have made recent changes not only to the design of our website, which is now much more 'user friendly' and infinitely more attractive, but also to online software for producing The Irish Papers Today and now for FIE News. We hope you will enjoy our site and the services we provide to make news about the Irish environmental easily accessible to those who care. |
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ANNUAL APPEAL |
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We are now running our annual appeal.
We need your contributions because FIE, started in 1997, is a network of environmentalists - not a membership organisation which can rely on annual subscriptions. We rely on our annual appeal.
Clink on the link to see how to contribute by check, credit card or by Paypal, the online service.
And - thank you!
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| A better Access to Information Convention? |
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 FIE is supporting a joint NGO letter to the Council of Europe expresssing serious concerns that the current draft of the future European Convention on Access to Official Documents falls below prevailing European and international standards.
The Treaty does not even reflect existing good practice in Europe. It fails to meet the Irish standards [which took on board almost all of FIE's recommendations submitted through COMHOR].
The draft Convention fails to to define time limits on exemptions, to guarentee a right to all appeals, to include all official documents, or to specify certain basic categories of official documents that must be published proactively.
Visit their campaign site
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| Forestry - A Strategic Environmental Assessment? |
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 FIE is today releasing a copy of a letter to the Minister for the Environment seeking a Strategic Environmental Assessment for Ireland's national forestry policy. This follows two key reviews we have done on the impact of forestry on the fresh water pearl mussel and the Hen harrier.
The Department of Agriculture has stated that 'recent research' has shown that young forestry, both new and replanted, are a 'vital component in the foraging pattern of the bird.' This statement is at variance with best scientific advice, which is that afforesting Hen harrier areas will result in a net loss of habitat for foraging and brooding.
The Report that the Department based their designation of the SPAs for Hen Harrier on has too many omissions, uncertainties and too narrow a focus to be used as a basis to ascertain the adequate protection of the Hen harrier.
Read the Letter and the review of The Hen harrier Report.
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| Section 5s |
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 FIE has been encouraging local groups confronted with massive projects that appear to have been lost in Local Authority bureaucracy to invoke Section 5 of the Planning Regulations. Section 5 requires the local authority to give a ruling on weather planning permission is required within 6 weeks. Their decision can be appealed to the Appeals Board.
See how the Hill of Allen residents group have used this:
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Killarney - Cork road rerouted |
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 FIE was delighted when the National Roads Authority actually agreed to move the new Killarney - Cork road to avoid Cascade Wood in Ballyvaughny - as it is generally regarded as impossible to force a road relocation for environmental reason. FIE wrote to the Minister for the Environment last February seeking further studies and the residents left no stone unturned seeking support to save the Wood. The site, like Shippool Wood near Inishshannon, was protected by its listing in the Cork County Development Plan - until the list was removed from the Plan in 2003.
The Irish Times Story
Our Report
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| Ballina bridge - ABP decision provokes legal ire |
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In the case of the pedestrian bridge, art centre, and parking facilities on the River Moy in Ballina, ABP's Inspector's concluded on FIE's Reference that although the proposed developments were 'likely to have effects on water quality in the vicinity of the site which would be significance in the context of their location in the River Moy SAC, the project would not require an EIS.
The 1997 Irish Habitats regulations make it clear in Section 31 that where an activity is 'likely to have a significant effect', there must be an appropriate assessment and this assessment must be in the form of an EIA which includes a mandatory EIS.
Legal ire is clearly expressed in a Solicitor's letter on our site. Legal action, however, would require security for costs and outlays that require more than anger. Read the letter:
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| Cleafelling in Ireland - an ecological diaster? |
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 FIE has been studying 3 clearfell sites in the West of Ireland where the practice of felling entire plantations with heavy machinery on fragile soils is leading to an ecological disaster.
The Photo Gallery on our site shows photograph after photograph of useless silt traps, flooding of nutrient rich sediment onto neighboring land and protected water courses.
The full report is due to be published, including the responses of The Forest Service, the Fisheries Boards, the Local Authorities, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, and the Forest Stewardship Council auditors, none of whom would admit to any environmental damage.
Read the Report
Photo Gallery
http://www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.net/index.php?do=photos&gId=1 |
| Green Label Problems |
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FIE has been involved in the process of developing a national standard for the Forest Stewardship Council's [FSC] Certification for 7 years. Last year FIE filed a series of grievances against the Steering Committee's continued disregard of procedures, lack of openness and transparency, and their attempt to push through a draft standard that did not meet FSC Guidance Documents.
FSC's Accreditation Services International [ASI] intervened, requiring a new draft standard and procedures and imposing a 2 year timeline before accreditation is withdrawn. The rub is that the stakeholders can not even agree on whom to send to Bonn to meet with ASI to agree the new procedures. Last week's Steering Committee meeting ended in screaming bedlam and a walk out by the Chairman.
At the root of the problem is the bitterness caused by FSC's certification of Coillte Teo's unsustainable forestry practices in advance of a national standard.
http://friendsoftheirishenvironment.net/index.php?id=15
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| Wicklow Council sustains FIE's mast objection |
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 FIE was delighted with the decision of Wicklow County Council to refuse permission to Meteor Mobile Communications for a 24m mobile communications mast in Glencree, an area designated as Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
The Council agreed that the proposed mast would 'appear visually obtrusive thereby seriously militating against the preservation of the rural and scenic character of the landscape.' FIE stated that the refusal represented a growing 'sense of proportion in ballancing natural amenities against development interests that has been reflected in recent mobile mast refusal by the Planning Appeals Board in Kerry and Kilkenny.' |
| Call for more funds for GSI and EPA |
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 As Ireland's annual emissions of GHGs edges up by another 2% to reach an increase of almost 26% since 1990, FIE is calling for more resources for the Environmental Protection Agency and the Geological Survey of Ireland. New powers given the EPA last month to supervise Local Authority water schemes come just as industrial installations such Aughinish Aluminum, which existed before the 1999, will come under the IPPC Licensing system later this year. The groundwater protection office of the Geological Service of Ireland is also under increasing pressure with permanent staff left unreplaced as staff must respond to greater demands under the National Development Plan's Geo-Science initiative with fewer resources. Delays in responding to telephone enquiries to the groundwater section of the GSI are now from 4 to 6 weeks.
Read FIE's talk to the Irish Branch of the International Hydrogeological Association:
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| The defintion of peat soils |
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 FIE is continuing its so far unsuccessful campaign to bring the definition of peat soils used by the Forest Service into line with that imposed on farmers under the Nitrates Regulations 2006.
The Forest Service determines if a soil is peat by a minimum depth - a definition only intended to assess Ireland's peatlands for industrial use. A farmer planting his land for crops must use the Nitrates Regulation's definition - the amount of organic matter. This is the correct definition for defining soils for cultivation. The net result of these different definitions is huge. Ireland claims to have only planted 29% of its plantations 1990 - 2000 on peat soils. The European Environmental Agency satellite surveys show the true figure to be 84% - over 100,000 hectares.
Read our unanswered letter to the Department of Agriculture, who when questioned by the EU on the reason for the forestry defintion of peat, are reputed to have said it was 'because we've always done it this way.'
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| Long life lighbulb - the dangers |
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 FIE welcomed the new Minister for the Environment's recent commitment to introduce a levy on incandescent bulb. However, we wrote to the Minister to draw his attention to the dangers posed by the disposal of these bulbs. The publicity and packaging must make clear that these bulbs are 'hazardous domestic waste'. We also asked the Minister to circularize Local Authorities to ensure that disposal points in recycling centers should make it clear that CFLs are Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs and should be separated with florescent light bulbs.
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The New FIE site |
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FIE's site has been redesigned to make the information contained in our databases more easily accessible. The Search Engine can search either FIE's own work, our forestry section, the more than 10,000 news stories in the archives of The Papers Today, or all three together.
Photographs have also been added individually and in photo galleries - the first on the damage that clearfelling is doing. An audio section contains radio interviews and podcasts commenting on the environmental news. A new EU law section is about to be updated with details of all the Judgments against Ireland by the European Court.
We hope these changes will serve our purpose of making information more easily accessible to those who care about the Irish environment.
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