“We support the principles and ambition of the EU Biodiversity Strategy and will develop comprehensive legislation for the identification, designation, and management of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Irish territorial waters” This is the Irish Government’s own commitment for MPAs, stated in its ‘Our Shared Future’ programme outlining its governmental Read more…
Ireland is home to a newly designated ‘Hope Spot’ off the Greater Skellig Coast in an area noted to have high conservation value for biodiversity. Hope Spots are scientifically identified as critical to the health of the ocean and designated by the global marine conservation movement Mission Blue. The Greater Read more…
By Pádraic Fogarty, Campaign Officer with the Irish Wildlife Trust When the gavel went down at the end of COP21 in Paris in November 2015 there was a moment of great relief and jubilation. The Paris Agreement had decided that global temperatures should not be allowed to rise above 1.5 Read more…
Four out of five want additional protection for Irish coastal waters and oceans. There is strong support for more legal protection for Irish waters according to a coalition of Ireland’s leading environmental non-governmental organisations and networks. The Fair Seas Campaign, which seeks to protect, conserve and restore Ireland’s Read more…
You may recall the plea ‘to keep 1.5 alive’ from last years COP26. This 1.5 goal refers to the target of keeping the earth’s warming below a temperature rise of 1.5 degrees, and in line with the 2016 Paris Agreement. If ‘1.5’ was the global goal around which international communities Read more…
Following advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), the EU Commission has finally closed 87 sensitive marine areas in EU waters to bottom fishing. The closed areas amount to 16,000 km2 of EU waters, of which nearly 9,000 km2 are within the Irish Exclusive Economic Read more…
In May earlier this year, within the walls of Dublin Castle, a very special meeting took place. Chaired by Dr. Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin, 99 Irish Citizens gathered to learn about biodiversity loss in Ireland, and what can be done to stop it. This was the first meeting of Ireland’s Citizens’ Read more…
18 FOLD INCREASE IN MARINE PROTECTED AREAS NEEDED TO TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE AND BIODIVERSITY LOSS Ireland’s Marine Protected Areas must increase 18-fold by the end of the decade in order to restore critical habitats, safeguard wildlife and address the climate crisis according to a new report commissioned by the Fair Read more…
6 July 2022 Over recent months, local opposition has been building against possible mineral prospecting in east Clare. Resistance in East Clare Opposition was largely spurred on by the publication of a prospecting licence, granted to the mining company Minco Ltd. for the Tulla area of Co. Clare, as Read more…
6 July 2022 Comic book characters are at the height of popularity right now. The characters created by DC and Marvel in particular have been making their mark in the box office with Avengers: Endgame being the highest grossing movie of all time when it was released. These stories of Read more…
