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Today, Monday 20th January, Cllr Jennifer Whitmore, Social Democrats, will launch the Party’s Biodiversity proposals as part of their ‘Greener and Fairer’ platform in the General election.

Speaking ahead of the launch, Cllr Jennifer Whitmore, the Social Democrats general election candidate in Wicklow said:

“Biodiversity loss is one of the most urgent challenges Ireland faces. If we don’t meet this challenge head on, there will be catastrophic consequences, in particular for our entire food production system.

“Ireland, despite its image of a green country, is one of the most deforested countries in Europe. Our insect population is declining at an alarming rate with, for example, our bumblebee and butterfly populations declining at more than the global rates.

“But there are solutions where there is the political will to lead on a radical reimagining of our relationship to the natural world. Our environment and our wildlife are robust, as long as they are given the time and support to recover. Working with farmers, who are guardians of much of our land, we can be a country where nature thrives again.

“We need joined up thinking and action from national and local governments, working with our farmers and local communities, to implement a series of ambitious measures that will reshape how we work with our environment and restore our biodiversity.

“Our proposals include a voluntary purchase of unprofitable farmland for converting to native woodland; the doubling of our protected nature reserves; new legislation to eliminate pesticides; new measures to improve urban biodiversity and the promotion and expansion of wildlife corridors across the country.

“The biodiversity crisis is now. The time for action is now. The consequences for ourselves and for future generations are too severe not to act.”

ENDS
20th Jan 2020

Notes:

1. The launch will take place at the Leeson St. entrance to St. Stephens Green at 1pm

2. The policy Biodiversity: Protecting our fauna and natural habitat is available here.

2. The Social Democrats are running 20 candidates in #GE2020. Full details here.

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