The Social Democrats has proposed that a percentage of farmland be gradually “rewilded” back to natural forest.

It says that there is “a significant minority of farms which have low productivity and are not profitable, and there is a large amount of farmland lying idle”.

The party has proposed a scheme in which the State would work closely with farmers and offer to buy some of these unprofitable farms at attractive rates, with the aim of planting native forest.

It has called for the continued review of agricultural practices relating to pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers. It also pledges to a doubling of the area of protected nature reserve by 2040 and the promotion, and expansion, of wildlife corridors across the country.