Issue 29 Summer 2016 The Programme for Government What should be prioritised? CONTACTS Systematic failure

Friends of is failing its people A prime example of this is the and its environment. It is a systemic dualling of the A6. Although better the Earth failure that permeates every level of options were available, the selected government. So insidious is it that it route cuts through flood plain 7 Donegall Street Place causes people to defend it and act between and Lough against their best interests. Beg. Not only is this precious wetland BT1 2FN an important feeding ground for Tel: 028 9023 3488 It begins with a political system swans, geese and other birds, it is Fax: 028 9024 7556 that is obsessed with economic also the landscape that inspired and Email: [email protected] development. This is despite the nurtured Séamus Heaney, arguably Website: www.foe.co.uk/ni mounting evidence that this the world’s most popular poet. obsession with economic growth is James Orr leading us towards disaster – climate To borrow from another Irish literary Director change, resource decline, biodiversity figure, to fail to regulate once may be collapse, poverty, inequality, ill-health, regarded as a misfortune, to fail to of iStock courtesy Photo Tel: 028 9023 3636 and unhappiness. We have lost touch regulate twice looks like carelessness, rules. What will happen at the site This will get worse unless we change Email: [email protected] with the things that are important to continue to fail to regulate looks now that the company is leaving direction. We urgently need to for us as social animals – family, like a wilful act. A continued failure to remains to be seen. Will the clean-up enable people everywhere to improve Declan Allison community, health, green spaces, a regulate is what we see. conditions be enforced? their well-being on a planet that Campaigner sense of place. can sustain us in the long term. Tel: 028 9089 7591 The Northern Ireland Executive’s From Cavanacaw goldmine to That means giving environmental Email: [email protected] This systemic failure is best failure to tackle climate change Mobuoy Road landfill site, Lough protection the consideration it exemplified by our environmental is exacerbated by its policies on Neagh sand dredging to giant deserves. After all, we rely on a protection regime. Across the board transport, waste management, chicken factories, time and time healthy environment to provide us Niall Bakewell we see short-term economic growth agriculture, housing, and energy. again we see environmental law with the air, water, food, and the Activism Co-ordinator elevated above protection of the Systemic failure is writ large in being ignored in favour of short-term sense of place we need. It also means Tel: 028 9089 7592 environment, heritage or social the case of the exploratory drill economic gain. Never underestimate giving communities the opportunity Email: [email protected] cohesion. Never mind sustainable at Woodburn Forest. Domestic the lengths the authorities will go to participate fully in decision making. development or future generations, and European law was ignored or to in order to avoid doing what they Colette Stewart profits now are all that matter. circumvented at every stage of the are legally required to do. The vote We owe it both to current and to Office Manager process, from issuing the exploratory to leave the EU adds further wiggle future generations. Tel: 028 9023 3488 licence, to failing to enforce planning room for those intent on downplaying environmental protection. What will Craig Bennett is the Chief Email: [email protected] the status be of environmental laws Executive Officer of Friends of

derived from Europe? the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Local Groups The importance

from human harm. In a movement Banbridge and Mourne found itself at the centre of enquiry across disciplines; in anthropology, searching for the universal, place was Friends of the Earth of place where I encountered it, but also from avoided for its often inward-seeming Bonnie Anley psychology to architecture, sociology perspective – an us-and-them Tel: 077 3040 1331 to public health. quality that is prone to producing Email: Growing up in the Irish midlands, green light of native woodland that reactionary politics like NIMBYism [email protected] I had the privilege of a bucolic comes to mind. The idea of place as a fixed, bounded and sectarian territoriality. But childhood. I played unconstrained entity, containing a homogenous there is a growing realisation that, among the bogs, heather, and My study of environmental population is being challenged by in an interconnected world, the same unsustainable practices that Friends of the Earth woods. Despite the enchantment sustainability has taken me to this burgeoning field, with a growing that imbued my early years, those places very different from where recognition that social, economic and threaten our wild spaces and their Jaimie McFarland places were unremarkable to the I grew up – to the South Bronx technological shifts are changing populations also affect people, falling Email: outside world. The boglands of in New York and to East Belfast, ideas of the specificity of place; of disproportionately at the feet of our [email protected] County Longford, far from pristine, are the field sites in which my PhD is what, and where, we understand poorest communities, both rural and essentially industrial space, worked based. However, connection to place to be. Place is not simply a urban. Craigavon Friends of the Earth by Bórd Na Mona for milled peat, but place and the community produced location, a point on a map. It is a Maggie McDonald to me it was a magical landscape. by it has remained central to my process of shared meaning, identity A new, place-focused Email: [email protected] Though I have been gone from there understanding of what a socially just and history, a connection between environmentalism is progressive longer than not, when I conjure an environmentalism entails. Sense of people in relationship with each other because it confronts the image of ‘the environment’ it is the place is an immensely, deceptively, and with the rest of the world. Not interconnectedness, rather than Queen’s University, Belfast expansive black of the bog and the complex subject that has increasingly only is place a major determinant of the separateness of these things, Niall Callaghan access to education, employment, including a concern for the conditions Email: health care, and social interaction it of human as well as non-human life. [email protected] is also crucial to our understanding It allows for a folding in of issues of how people experience and relate of social equity, distributive justice, Downpatrick Friends of the Earth to the world. It is this that makes and economic fairness with more Imelda Hynds it significant for the goals of 21st traditionally ‘green’ concerns. When the environment ceases to be an Tel: 028 4461 2260 century environmentalism. Place is the point of intersection between the abstract idea, and is seen, instead as Email: [email protected] environment and human society. the place where we live, the processes that sustain us, the storehouse of our East Antrim Friends of the Earth Historically, environmentalism has memories, and the common interest Niall Bakewell had a difficult relationship with place. we share, protecting it becomes less Tel: 028 9089 7592 It valorised the natural as separate a fringe activity and more an act of Email: [email protected] from the human, drawing on the keeping our homes, our livelihoods, sublime grandeur of wild landscapes our relationships, and ourselves alive. advocating a conservationist impulse to protect these spaces, Rebekah McCabe is the Creative along with their flora and fauna, producer at PLACE. Friends of the Earth Friends

Editor: Declan Allison Contributors: Craig Bennett, Rebekah McCabe, Chris Murphy, John Sweeney, Fiona Joyce, Ruth McAreavey, Eamonn McCann and Haf Elgar. The views expressed are not necessarily those of Friends of the Earth. Designed by: Dogtag Creative. Printed on paper made from 100 per cent post-consumer waste.

For more than 40 years we’ve seen that the wellbeing of people and planet go hand in hand – and it’s been the inspiration for our campaigns. Together with thousands of people like you we’ve secured safer food and water, defended wildlife and natural habitats, championed the move to clean energy and acted to keep our climate stable. Be a Friend of the Earth – see things differently.

Friends of the Earth is a collective name for Friends of the Earth Trust, registered charity 281681, company number 1533942, and Friends of the Earth Limited, company number 1012357, both of which may use the above information. In both cases the registered office is at 26-28 Underwood Street, London N1 7JQ Tel: 020 7490 1555 Fax: 020 7490 0881 Email: [email protected] Website: www.foe.co.uk , company number 1012357 © Friends of the Earth 2016. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means nor translated into a machine language without written permission. Friends of the Earth would like to keep you up to date on our work and what you are helping us to achieve. If you would prefer not to receive any further communication from us please contact: [email protected] or call 028 9023 3488 with your contact details. Lough Beg, Time to an Uncut Walk the Jewel of Thinkstock courtesy Photo Walk

Before recently planted trees began to block the view, the swans of Lough Beg made an impressive On the 17th December last the northern tip of sight from the A6 west of Toomebridge. To see Ulster, Malin Head, recorded a temperature of them now it is necessary to come off the A6 at 16oC, its highest December value for 60 years. The Elk and watch from a minor road. It helps to Some reports indicated that this occurred in have binoculars or better still, a telescope. It’s the middle of the night, but in any event it was Northern Ireland’s number one site for wild swans typical of a sequence of extreme seasons that and has a wide variety of birds throughout the have characterised Ireland in recent years. Winter year including many that are rare. 2015/16 was the wettest on record in most parts, Lough Beg has largely gone under the radar. It winter 2013/14 was the stormiest for at least 143 remains little known and rarely visited, an uncut years and farmers will remember the cold spring jewel, a wetland of rare beauty with a wealth of 2013 when the grass refused to grow until well of wildlife and a suite of designations to match. into May. Little wonder its marshes and meadows, “the wet and the weeds and the wilderness” inspired There was a time when climatologists were loath a future Poet Laureate to write of “the peewit to link such extremes with global climate change, and the curlew and the whirring snipe” and to but the ability to run complex climate models later dream of his boyhood growing up in a “real thousands of times has provided a powerful land, a shore at evening, quiet water, wind in the This elevated (thus highly intrusive) road will Caerlaverock, Slimbridge, Welney, Martin Mere, new tool to attribute a percentage at least grass, the calls of birds, maybe a man or woman fragment our last remaining wet grassland - a Inch Lake, and the Wexford Slobs. They are all of the probability of such extremes occurring out counting in a backfield just standing looking, natural flood plain which this winter was under priceless assets to a nation’s well-being, wonderful counting cattle, listening.” the highest water in living memory - and our places to watch birds and recharge the senses. to greenhouse emissions. Thus the UK Met most important wintering grounds for wild swans. Office recently published research results which In work is about to get under way on a Fragmentation destroys biodiversity. It doesn’t I know them well and none is as beautiful as contended that an extended period of winter new, multi-million pound tourism centre which take many cuts for a wetland to lose its appeal Seamus Heaney’s Lough Beg. rainfall, such as we had last December, is now it is hoped will serve the community and act as to big flocks of waterfowl that are sensitive to seven times more. a focal point for study trips by overseas visitors disturbance. If only the tourism consultants drafted in by wishing to immerse themselves in the life-shaping councils that are desperate to attract visitors Such growing conviction regarding the landscapes of Seamus Heaney. Just when things It will also fragment the landscape of the great would advise them to invest in the long term seriousness of what a failure to tackle climate were looking rosy for Lough Beg another multi- poet himself! protection of their natural and built heritage - change may bring should galvanise our million pound project has been given the green their environment. responses. It’s not as if the science community, light. This is the re-routing and widening of a Anywhere else these swanfields and the adjoining led by the IPCC, has been silent. In their 5th short stretch of the A6 which will break up the big Lough Beg would be cause for celebration. Across Chris Murphy is an independent wildlife Assessment Report the IPCC confirmed that swan fields at the south end of the lough. England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of consultant. Ireland there are wetland nature reserves like the global community has only 2-3 decades of ‘burn’ left before the inevitability of dangerous climate change occurs. Percolation of this reality to the person in the street, and particularly the policymakers has been painfully slow. The former respond to short term economic concerns Learning the lessons of Woodburn primarily while the latter are often paralysed by powerful vested interest groups.

In June, the oil and gas exploration company, NS and Biocide T. These are not chemicals which For both parts of Ireland two sectors are InfraStrata, announced it had found no fossil should be allowed under permitted development. particularly problematical: agriculture and fuels at Woodburn Forest. The company has transport. The removal of the milk levy in April begun to remove its equipment from the site and We have a right to participate in decisions that must restore it to its original condition. have a significant environmental impact. This 2015 has encouraged farmers to expand into is a human right and ratified by the Aarhus dairy farming, in the case of the Republic In their 50 year Agreement with NI Water Convention. Not being allowed to participate in planning for 300,000 more methane-producing InfraStrata had “the right to re-inject Petroleum, this decision is a violation of that right. units as part of a 50% increase in milk output by water and any other fluids into the Site and under 2020. For transport there is a systematic failure the Site.” Stop the Drill campaign questioned As a result of the Stop the Drill campaign the in both parts of Ireland to ‘climate change proof’ the role of NI Water in leasing the site to an then Minister Durkan announced a ‘Call for future plans. Large expenditures on new roads oil/gas company putting this water at risk of Evidence’ on Permitted Development Rights for are prioritised over public transport, and car- contamination. Over 1800 streets are supplied mineral exploration. The Minister said “I am keen dependent policies for retail, employment and across Belfast, , , to ensure situations such as the confusion in the residential settlement still are all too often the , Whitehead, and . planning process at Woodburn are avoided.” norm. We act as though the decarbonisation of society which must occur in the next 35 years can In Northern Ireland the oil and gas industry On Monday 6th June 2016 Minister Hazzard are allowed to conduct exploratory drilling by announced that the ‘call for evidence’ brought an be postponed until the last minute. ‘permitted development’. We learned via an “overwhelming response in favour of change to information request that, “the Department did the existing system”. He said he would propose to The ratchet rules in the Paris Agreement commits not complete its EIA Determination or advise the the Executive to remove permitted development both the UK and Ireland to ever decreasing applicant of PD Rights until 19th December 2013, rights for oil and gas meaning exploratory drilling greenhouse gas emissions. Later this year the EU at which point Permitted Development Rights would need full planning permission. Effort Sharing Decision for the period 2020-2030 had been granted by default.” will be announced. Intensive lobbying behind In the interests of health, public participation closed doors is occurring to minimise national The risks of exploratory drilling in Woodburn and transparency we continue to highlight contributions. For an island that talks the talk Forest are well documented and it appears that and challenge the major inaccuracies in the about its green, clean image, it’s now time for the need for intense scrutiny in relation to this processing of this decision. We must make sure new governments in both parts of the island to sensitive site had been avoided. The fact that the same thing doesn’t happen elsewhere. walk the walk. the chemical characteristics of this process were not known to the Department (or if they were Fiona Joyce is a prominent activist in the Stop they were not assessed) at the time of permitted the Drill campaign. Dr. John Sweeney is Emeritus Professor of development rights being applied is a key issue. Geography at the National University of Among the most concerning chemicals which Ireland. InfraStrata used at Woodburn are Halad-300L of the Earth Declan Allison/Friends Issue 29 Summer 2016 Courtesy of Digital Vision of Digital Courtesy

£1.91m in regional economic biogas. We could ask very many output), the benefits to small family more related questions of animal Growing for Gross farms compared to corporate gains welfare; economic gains; efficacy of must be questioned. This is perhaps channelling gas across the country; best exemplified by the poultry and so forth. Agriculture is important in Northern Government in Northern Ireland towards government. In addition sector - the gold standard within Ireland. Agriculture produces local seems to believe we can. The Going the industry-led Agri-Food Strategy Agri-food. Undoubtedly it offers The proximity of the agri-food sector food but a legacy of production for Growth Strategy that was Board is requesting an investment security for some farmers, it raises to government as evidenced in Going and land management has created approved by the NI Executive, sets of £400m over three years (to lever many concerns. These are starting for Growth raises serious questions the landscape that many of us out a raft of recommendations for an industry investment of £1.3bn). to become visible, not least with the about the clientelist relationship regularly enjoy. Indeed many of us development in the agri-food sector. The NI Executive has agreed priority plethora of poultry shed buildings between industry and government. have a direct or indirect connection Its premise is to expand supply, areas that it will work on. However, appearing across our landscape. Who is setting the agenda here – is it to rural life. The sector accounts for secure global markets, and to reduce these targets were agreed in 2012 Connected with this is the immediate large corporations or small farmers? approximately 10 per cent of private costs. Figures are ambitious – to at a time when markets were much problem of disposing of the 270,000 Where is the public interest in these sector employment, though farm grow sales by 60% to over £7bn, more buoyant than they are today. tonnes of waste litter from chicken activities that involve the public incomes have been falling here as in create 15,000 new jobs, grow sales Some industry experts fear they are processing. The NI Executive has purse? Is this the way that we want many other parts of the world. It’s outside Northern Ireland by 75% unlikely to be achieved. provided a loan of £9.3m towards to see scarce resources distributed? an interesting time to consider if we to £4.5bn, and to increase value a £23m anaerobic digester plant can all be winners in this competitive added to £1 billion by 2020. There With an estimated output multiplier being built in Ballybofey. It will Dr. Ruth McAreavey is Programme world? are 118 recommendations in the of 1.9 (i.e. every £1m of food and treat just under 10% of annual Director MSc Planning and report, of which 80 are directed drink processing output generates waste from NI and it will produce Regeneration, Queen’s University.

any criterion, it’s a poorer road than The preferred route for the A6 runs of your rivals. In which case, you are Driving Progress Belfast-Newry, Belfast-Larne or, as it across a tract of land built on top of likely to sign dumb about the dump. seems from , Belfast-anywhere. the biggest illegal dump in Europe at Campsie just outside Derry. The We can fight the issue road by road. Abortion, Cannabis, Israel. Even If it’s a fact that your city or region So the state of the road can dumping having been illegal, nobody Despite all, we could win in the courts flags-and-emblems. Each would has been done down over the years, reasonably be regarded as both knows for certain what’s buried there. on the A6. The A6 plan has, typically, rank high on any list of contentious the idea that a motorway, or at least symbol and substance of the The relevant environmental impact not been tested in any serious way, issues. But sometimes, in certain a fast-flowing dual carriageway, is an relatively depressed state of the assessment was made a decade ago. none of the lessons of the A5 fiasco circumstances, not as contentious entitlement which you have unfairly North West. And the solution can We know less now than we did then. learnt. as a proposed road. Say you are been denied may come to mind therefore seem obvious - a spanking against the A6 and watch the naturally - especially when, seemingly new highway for the region as high- Because we don’t know what we are But to win overall, to change the North West sway away in appalled everywhere, “progress” is presented spec as we can win funding for. dealing with, we don’t know what context in which issues of transport disbelief. as synonymous with more and bigger the dangers are. So - stop the road, connectivity and economic advance vehicles on longer, broader roads. To counter this argument, it’s not at least until we have had a closer and equalisation are discussed, Roads have become status symbols enough to invoke the catastrophic look at the implications. Which is and proper priority given to for towns, cities, communities. If The A6 - the main route between effects of rising CO2 emissions or the absolutely reasonable, irrefutable environmental factors, we need a you don’t have a motorway, you are Derry and Belfast - undeniably needs damage inflicted on the communities - unless you are a mainstream different class of politics altogether. being disrespected, discriminated upgrading. It has stretches - from and landscapes the road would politician out to show that your against, deprived. the M2 exit to , for example gouge through. commitment to local economic Eamonn McCann is an MLA for - which double as death-traps. By development matches that of any Foyle.

a lot of discussions, consultations, carry out sustainable development, Since its establishment there’s been campaigning and negotiations. and develop plans in order to reach a duty on the National Assembly a set of well-being goals stated in A Wales fit for for Wales to promote sustainable Basically it’s about well-being – of the Act. These goals are for Wales to development. To some extent this people and the planet, of current and be a prosperous, resilient, healthier, has been useful, with annual reports future generations and of Wales and more equal and globally responsible, and the continuation of the post our impact on the world. with cohesive communities, vibrant Future Generations of a Commissioner for Sustainable culture and thriving Welsh language. Futures after the UK’s Sustainable It’s about investing in the right There’s a new Future Generations Development Commission was things. For example home energy Commissioner to help public bodies axed. But it’s never really been efficiency measures that cut carbon, adapt and pick up on problems. mainstreamed across government tackle fuel poverty and create quality or changed the way decisions were local jobs in every community. The duty only came in on April 1st made in Wales. And particularly in Or planning preventative health and the office of the Commissioner times of economic hardship we’ve measures like supportive active travel is just being set up, so we’re yet to seen any short term jobs or potential and healthy diets, and supporting see proof of how it can work. The economic growth being given priority local producers with fair prices first big test will be the newly elected over wider social or environmental through public procurement. Welsh Government’s programme for concerns. government. And it’s not just about different So with Wales getting the powers outcomes but doing things It’s certainly a work in progress to make its own laws in 2011 there differently, working in line with the and a big challenge. But it’s a bold was an opportunity to put this right sustainable development principles statement about the sort of place - thinking beyond the day to day, or of thinking long-term, taking we want to be and become, about electoral cycle, of politics and looking preventative action, collaboration how we want to work together and ahead to a vision. It was a chance and integration between agencies what we think is important. And to ask ourselves what sort of country and involving people and we’re hoping that it can also be an did we want to be and what sort communities in the decisions that inspiration and example to other of world did we want to leave for affect them. countries and regions. So over to future generations? It can’t be done you - what do you want Northern overnight, but we’ve taken a big step The Act applies to all devolved public Ireland’s future to be? to achieving this through the Well- bodies in Wales – from the Welsh being of Future Generations (Wales) Government and local authorities to Haf Elgar is a Campaigner with Act which was passed last year, after health trusts and the arts council. It Friends of the Earth Cymru.

Courtesy of Thinkstock Courtesy sets a ‘well-being duty’ for them to