The Wildlife Act 1976 is an Act of the

Oireachtas The Oireachtas (, ), sometimes referred to as Oireachtas Éireann, is the Bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The Oireachtas consists of: *The President of Ireland *The bicameralism, two houses of the Oireachtas ...

protecting certain wildlife (including game) and

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...

in the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

. With the Wildlife (Amendment) Act 2000, it is the principal national legislation for the protection of wildlife species and

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s in Ireland.

Provisions

The Act included a schedule of

protected species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and invas ...

, but it was relatively weak on habitat protection, particularly in the case of habitats on privately owned land.The Implementation of the Habitats Directive
/ref> Subsequent measures to

transpose In linear algebra, the transpose of a matrix is an operator which flips a matrix over its diagonal; that is, it switches the row and column indices of the matrix by producing another matrix, often denoted by (among other notations). The tr ...

the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

Birds Directive The Birds Directive (formally known as Council Directive 2009/147/EC on the conservation of wild birds) is the oldest piece of EU legislation on the environment and one of its cornerstones which was unanimously adopted in April 1979 as the Dire ...

(originally 1979, replaced 2009) and

Habitats Directive The Habitats Directive (more formally known as Council Directive 92/43/EEC on the Conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora) is a directive adopted by the European Community in 1992 as a response to the Berne Convention. The E ...

(1992) into Irish law have strengthened habitat protection.

Implementation

The Wildlife Act of 1976 was followed by: * the "Wildlife Advisory Council Order" on 13 March 1978. Under the terms of the 1976 act, a Wildlife Advisory Council was established – known officially in the

Irish language Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...

as "An Chomhairle Fhiadhulra". The functions of this body, which was abolished in 1987, included the establishment and maintenance of reserves and refuges for wildlife, the ongoing protection of breeding grounds, herd management, migration, etc. It would also make certain provisions relating to land, inland waters and the

territorial waters The term territorial waters is sometimes used informally to refer to any area of water over which a sovereign state has jurisdiction, including internal waters, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, and potenti ...

of the state. * the "Wildlife Act 1976 (Protection of Wild Animals) Regulations" on 10 September 1980, * the "Wildlife Act 1976 (Acquisition of Land) Regulations" on 6 February 1978, and others.

Amendments

Since 1976 the Act has since been amended several times, first by the "European Communities (Wildlife Act, 1976) (Amendment) Regulations, 1985", which sought to manage, conserve, and protect birds. The second amendment was the "European Communities (Wildlife Act, 1976) (Amendment) Regulations, 1986", which added the control of species of wild bird which may cause damage or injury to specified interests. The most recent was the "Wildlife (Amendment) Act, 2000 (Act No. 38 of 2000)", which provided statutory protection for

Natural Heritage Area Natural Heritage Area () is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in Ireland. The Wildlife (Amendment) Act 2000 makes legal provision for the designation and protection of a national network of Natural Heritage Areas (NHAs). The de ...

s as well as legislation relating to the management and conservation of

forests A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

, including the hunting and capture of birds in protected forests.

References

Sources

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Citations

{{reflist 1976 in the environment 1976 in Ireland 1976 in law 1976 in Irish law Acts of the Oireachtas of the 1970s Environmental law in Ireland