Championing our countryside: Manifesto for Northern Ireland 2022

The Countryside Alliance Ireland manifesto sets out how the next Assembly can protect, connect and grow rural Northern Ireland.

Our countryside is a place of recreation, a larder, it underpins our tourism sector, and just as importantly, is a place of work for many as well as key to meeting the challenges of climate change. All this means we ask a great deal from our natural resources.

Rural Northern Ireland is an interwoven tapestry of cultural, economic, environmental and community issues. A threat to any one aspect could lead to the unravelling of the whole. Promoting and protecting our rural communities will be important for the next Assembly, especially now we have to adapt to the Protocol as a result of Brexit and as we recover from the devastation caused by Covid-19.

In addition, we are facing huge uncertainty around our food security due to the war in Ukraine. We are already seeing farmers trying to adapt by planting wheat in fallow fields to help meet the UK's food needs. Everything should be done to help them achieve this, and a long-term strategy developed to make us more resilient to outside factors in the future.

You can read the full manifesto here.