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Project title

JUSTLAND: A Just Transition for Land in Ireland

Primary Funding Agency

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Co-Funding Organisation(s)

Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine

Lead Organisation

Dublin City University (DCU)

Lead Applicant

Louise Fitzgerald

Project Abstract

Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) is a critical sector for addressing the climate and biodiversity crisis. However, there are clear and significant challenges facing Irish policy-making for AFOLU. These include knowledge gaps around changing patterns of land ownership; achieving and balancing competing policy aims, including socio-economic and environmental priorities; and ensuring fairness, equity and transparency within the sector. These multi-scalar dynamics pose significant challenges for the achievement of Ireland’s climate targets within the Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector, whilst the growing discontent of local communities around AFOLU interventions threatens the government's commitment to a Just Transition. There is an urgent need to address these intersecting challenges; inaction will only compound the situation as competing pressures on Ireland’s land increases over the coming years. JUSTLAND will respond directly to these challenges through three central research aims: A1: Provide concrete and actionable evidence for policy on how to develop effective and just policy interventions in the Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector A2: Design a novel methodology for analysing and understanding land use and land use change, contributing to the Land Use Review, which, inter alia, will assess current land use changes, changing ownership, socio-economic and cultural dimensions of land use A3: Develop creative, participatory approaches for engaging communities in meaningful dialogue and partnerships capable of advancing a just transition for the AFOLU sector The JUSTLAND project directly supports the government’s Land Review process. Any AFOLU intervention that the government plans will need to be grounded in an understanding of current patterns of land use and land use change in Ireland. This project will systematically examine and identify key policy interventions, implications, current barriers and actionable solutions to support Ireland’s transition to sustainable and equitable land-use planning and management. To contribute essential knowledge for developing just and effective AFOLU interventions, the project has two central elements. Firstly, it will provide a political ecology analysis of changing land ownership in Ireland. This is important to identify the actors involved in land currently, and to identify the implications of current policy approaches in terms of who is able to access land. Indeed as stated in the Land Use Phase 1 Review “Accurate, reliable information on the compositional profile of land ownership in Ireland underpins the effective development and implementation of land-use policy, plans or programmes” (EPA, 2023). This proposed analysis will provide exactly this information, providing the first in-depth examination and novel methodology for analysing changing land ownership patterns and the social, economic and cultural impacts of these changes. The second core strand of the project is enabling community-led transitions, in support of the government’s aims for social dialogue as underpinning the transition. The project will examine existing approaches to community led AFOLU transitions, review international best practise and develop and pilot a novel methodology for community-engaged workshops for develop place-based, just and effective AFOLU interventions to address the challenge of collecting evidence on the “the economic, environmental and societal impact of proposed land-use actions” (EPA, 2023).

Grant Approved

€303,489.91

Research Hub

Protecting and Restoring Our Natural Environment

Research Theme

Supporting the transition to sustainable land use planning and management

Start Date

03/03/2025

Initial Projected Completion Date

02/11/2026