Report of the Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss

After deliberating on how the State can improve its response to the issue of biodiversity loss, the Assembly agreed 159 recommendations. These 73 high-level recommendations and 86 sectoralspecific recommendations were agreed through a mixture of consensus agreement and ballots. The results of these votes are in Appendix 3. The nature of these recommendations speaks to the breadth and depth of the work undertaken by the Assembly. It also highlights the disappointment of the Assembly with the State’s failure to address the problem, particularly with the lack of enforcement of its own laws and policies. These recommendations emerged from the Assembly’s recognition that biodiversity has an intrinsic value that should be recognised and that the essential ecosystem services it provides will be impossible to replace. Members of this Assembly call on the Oireachtas to accept these recommendations and implement them without delay in order to curb the crisis of biodiversity loss and allow for the conservation and restoration of biodiversity for the people of Ireland, present and future. Members recognise, however, that the State cannot solve biodiversity loss alone. It is the responsibility of the whole of society, from individuals to industry across all sectors, to both call for and take action to address the issue.