The draft River Basin Management Plan 2022-2027 is currently out for public consultation. As part of that consultation process the Water Forum is hosting this webinar to discuss best practice in public participation in catchment management and why such engagement is essential to achieve the transformative change necessary to realise the objectives that Ireland has committed to in the next decade for water, biodiversity and climate.
Ireland has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030; halting biodiversity loss by 2030; the Water Framework Directive and the River Basin Management Plan aims to bring all of Ireland’s water bodies to good ecological status by 2027. While WFD policies and plans have been in place for a decade or more, all of the recent EPA environmental monitoring reports show that the majority of environmental metrics continue to show declines.
To make meaningful progress towards achieving ambitious environmental targets, the Water Forum believes it is essential that communities and stakeholders are given the opportunity to design solutions and co-create action at local level. A recent EPA report shows that 85% of the Irish people surveyed are worried about the impact of climate change, 78% felt more should be done to mitigate climate change and 79% feel the protecting water resources is Ireland’s greatest priority.
The Water Forum will host a webinar on 3rd February at 10am to discuss how the gap might be bridged between the national policies and plans and the desire among citizens to deliver outcomes for the natural environment.
Academics will present research on best practice in public participation and tools for delivering such participative and deliberative democracy programmes. Organisations and community groups already involved in developing and delivering water and biodiversity plans and actions at local level will discuss their learnings and what further supports and frameworks will be required to achieve real progress towards meeting the objectives of national policies which impact water, biodiversity and climate.
The webinar programme is attached and the link for registration is below.
