Date of Publication: January 2025
Tackling the ecological crisis that has emerged at Lough Neagh requires a suite of urgent interventions. Viewing Lough Neagh through an environmental justice lens may help enhance our understanding of the challenges that face Lough Neagh and inform decision-making to address these challenges. Environmental justice requires consideration of distributive justice, procedural justice and ‘recognition’ issues. In the context of Lough Neagh these issues include. In the context of Lough Neagh, seven essential aspects of a just and sustainable solution for Lough Neagh can be identified by applying an environmental justice lens: removal of accountability gaps, removal of conflicts of interest, strengthened regulation and enforcement, enhanced cross-border environmental co-operation, prioritisation of community wealth and decision-making, effective and stable management structures and addressing colonial dispossession through re-connecting people and place. Initiatives designed to ‘save Lough Neagh’ must include steps to address the issues identified above, or risk failing to address the root causes of environmental injustice. This will require consideration of the ownership issues and the environmental issues in tandem. The initiatives themselves should be co-designed by the communities they are designed to serve, including through meaningful public participation and transparency in decision-making processes.
