Farmers should be paid to sequester as much carbon as possible from their land, Midlands North-West MEP Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan has said.
Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal following an Irish Natura and Hill Farmer Association (INHFA) meeting in Carrick-on-Shannon last Friday, Flanagan said the payment to farmers for providing public goods should be part of the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Listen to "MEP Luke 'Ming' Flanagan on CAP 2020 and Ireland's forestry cover" on Spreaker.
Public goods
“This idea of public goods has got to come into it and the idea that you pay a farmer for whatever they do, not just for producing sustainable food, [but for] producing clean water and sequestering carbon as well. That’s what the new CAP is going to have to do,” he said.
Commenting on Ireland’s forestry cover, Flanagan said that if the goal of forestry cover is carbon sequestration, then “we’ve got to look at the masses of land that we have in this country, marginal land, wetland, peatland.
“We’ve got to look at all of those areas and the percentage of the country that’s taken up by them and actually think does it make sense, in any way, to have countries talking about 40% tree cover?
“When we’re looking at what our tree cover is, why are we not including the most diverse, sustainable tree cover that we have when it comes to our overall percentage area that’s covered in forestry?” he asked.
“We have, from the figures that I have, 6.4% of our land covered in hedgerows. We currently have 11% covered in forestry. We’re talking about reaching targets of 17% and 18% – have we not reached those targets already?” he said.
Read more
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Farmers should be paid to sequester as much carbon as possible from their land, Midlands North-West MEP Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan has said.
Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal following an Irish Natura and Hill Farmer Association (INHFA) meeting in Carrick-on-Shannon last Friday, Flanagan said the payment to farmers for providing public goods should be part of the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Listen to "MEP Luke 'Ming' Flanagan on CAP 2020 and Ireland's forestry cover" on Spreaker.
Public goods
“This idea of public goods has got to come into it and the idea that you pay a farmer for whatever they do, not just for producing sustainable food, [but for] producing clean water and sequestering carbon as well. That’s what the new CAP is going to have to do,” he said.
Commenting on Ireland’s forestry cover, Flanagan said that if the goal of forestry cover is carbon sequestration, then “we’ve got to look at the masses of land that we have in this country, marginal land, wetland, peatland.
“We’ve got to look at all of those areas and the percentage of the country that’s taken up by them and actually think does it make sense, in any way, to have countries talking about 40% tree cover?
“When we’re looking at what our tree cover is, why are we not including the most diverse, sustainable tree cover that we have when it comes to our overall percentage area that’s covered in forestry?” he asked.
“We have, from the figures that I have, 6.4% of our land covered in hedgerows. We currently have 11% covered in forestry. We’re talking about reaching targets of 17% and 18% – have we not reached those targets already?” he said.
Read more
CAP should not aim to 'be cheaper than Brazilian chicken or NZ milk' – Macron
CAP 2020 delay: farmers call for payments to be maintained
CAP reform delayed until after European elections
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