Followers

Saturday 23 November 2013

Shooting yourself in the foot, Part 1...

The recent decision by the Environment Minister, Mark H Durkan, to shelve National Parks legislation is as disheartening as it was inevitable. Given the whipped up hysteria against the legislation, mainly by the UFU, it was only a matter of time before our politicians pandered to the least common denominator and pulled the rug from underneath the one progressive and potentially massively beneficial piece of legislation that the Executive had come up with.

The UFU were predictable in their reaction. Yet such a response is again a startlingly self-defeating one. A wilful refusal to explore or recognise any benefit in National Parks, and the potential diverse economic opportunities such legislation could bring to farmers and land owners, is in the long run a complete dis-service to the people they purport to represent.

It again underlines the fact that the UFU still have to recognise that the rural economy can only thrive if non-farming sectors are given the space to do so. Rural communities are in the main made up of people who do not own land. Sustainable job creation in such areas, which would enable young people to stay and raise families where they were born, rather than move away, can only occur if our legislators create the conditions whereby investment can be made in sustainable rural sectors of employment. National Parks would provide a framework of protections for our most beautiful countryside areas, and also the access frameworks required to encourage much needed investment into them.

Saying all that, advocates of national parks and progressive countryside legislation in general, including those in the tourism sector, need to up their game and start to be more politically savvy. Things won't change all by themselves and the message needs to be better communicated. Those who oppose national parks may be misguided, but once again they have shown that they are better organised and more motivated in their campaign of opposition and lobbying. Dismantling their arguments and getting across a positive vision for the Northern Irish countryside is the challenge before us all.

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