THE RECENT DISCOVERY of two Asian hornet nests in Cork and subsequent sightings in Dublin are a sign of the accelerating ecological risks to Ireland’s environment, according to the Climate Change Advisory Council.

In its annual review of biodiversity, published today, the CCAC said the presence of the invasive species highlights “the growing threat to native biodiversity” and the urgent need “to strengthen our surveillance, control and management systems”. 

The Asian hornet, also known as the yellow-legged hornet, is indigenous to Southeast Asia and is an invasive species in most of Europe.

The first confirmed sighting of an Asian hornet in Ireland was made in Co Cork in August.

Since then, there have been 24 verified sightings in Cork and Dublin, with two nests found and removed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

The first sighting of an Asian hornet in the North was confirmed yesterday. 

“As our climate warms, as we get milder winters, we’re seeing incursions now of species that wouldn’t have been able to survive and persist in Ireland in the past, perhaps,” Yvonne Buckley, Professor of Zoology at Trinity College Dublin, said. 

We’re going to see increasing numbers of those species coming into Ireland.

She said the Asian hornets are particularly worrying because they eat a wide variety of honey bees, native insects and other invertebrates species.

“There can be over 100 insect species in the diet of the Asian hornets, and they’re voracious predators,” she said.

“And because they are new to Ireland, we don’t necessarily have the diseases and predators here of the Asian hornets to keep them in check, so they can they can be quite damaging.”

The CCAC has recommended that National Parks and Wildlife Service deliver its “long-overdue” National Invasive Species Management Plan before the end of the year, with targeted actions to monitor and manage species of concern, including the hornets.

Planning laws for biodiversity

The report also highlights the growing risk to biodiversity and ecosystems from the increased impacts of climate change.

The council warned that Ireland is “falling far short” of its international conservation commitments, with only 14.4% of land and just under 10% of marine areas under formal protection – far below the 30% target set for 2030 under the Global Biodiversity Framework.

It said more ambitious biodiversity conservation and restoration measures are needed in and outside protected areas.

The council has also recommended that the Government “urgently” develop a specific regulation requiring planning authorities to ensure that no net loss to biodiversity as a result of construction projects.

“We’re great at planning in Ireland. We have lots of plans for biodiversity. What we’re what we’re missing is the ability to implement those plans,” Buckley said.

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The report states that the regulation should ensure that the use of “nature-based solutions and biodiversity enhancement measures” are incorporated into future developments and schemes.

This would include the nature-inclusive design of infrastructure and active creation of nature-friendly habitats and biodiversity corridors – natural or restored areas that allow animals and plants to move through a landscape safely.

“What we’re calling for here… is actually making developers accountable for those biodiversity improvements and those biodiversity actions that they incorporate into their developments,” Buckley said.

She said regulations must be put in place “that ensure that we can measure and monitor this requirement for no net loss of biodiversity in developments”.

“We need local authorities to be able to actually follow up on those planning conditions that are put in place.”

The report states the requirement of no net loss of biodiversity must be “consistently applied and will provide a basis for the further development of nature credits and compensatory measures for biodiversity in licensing and permitting processes.”

The council also said the development of national guidance to support the integration of biodiversity into planning processes should be progressed “without delay, given the projected growth in new housing supply and other infrastructure over the next decade”.

“Regulation is needed on how no net loss of biodiversity should be practically achieved in the planning and execution of individual projects,” it said, adding that no net loss will require that individual developments “cause no measurable loss to biodiversity, compared with what was there before development”.