AQO 2533/22-27

Ms Kate Nicholl
Alliance Party
South Belfast

Tabled Date: 02/10/2025
Answered On Date: 14/10/2025
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs to outline the work his Department is doing to facilitate nature recovery.

Answer:

Protecting and restoring our terrestrial and marine environment is one of my priorities within DAERA’s corporate plan 2025-2027. Officials are working collaboratively to implement the Environmental Improvement Plan and the Lough Neagh Action Plan, to deliver ambitious measures to improve our air and water quality and restore biodiversity on land and sea. I have made significant progress, to date, across a number of key environmental objectives.

In June this year, I was delighted to release the first tranche of the new Farming with Nature Package. This package aims to improve biodiversity and sustainability through increasing the extent and improving the quality and connectivity of habitats within farmland across Northern Ireland.

My officials are working at pace to develop further phases to include focused support for Designated Areas and Priority Habitats and to facilitate collaboration and advisory support on a landscape scale to address specific environmental concerns.

In September, I was pleased to publish the Northern Ireland Peatland Strategy which provides a framework for the conservation and restoration of peatland habitats and also plays a key role in restoring biodiversity. I have already turned targets into action, with funding secured to restore 12,500 ha of peatland habitat by 2028.

My Department is finalising the Marine Protected Areas Strategy for the Northern Ireland inshore region 2025-2030, which I intend to publish by spring 2026.

I also have plans in place to develop Action Plans to aid recovery of some of Northern Ireland’s priority species; to develop an Elasmobranch Conservation Strategy; to progress a Seabird Conservation Strategy and Action Plan; and to deliver a new Nature Recovery Strategy to reflect how we will address our international commitments in the Global Biodiversity Framework.