September 4th, 2018 Wild Nephin in North Mayo became Ireland’s first official wilderness zone in 2013 when Coillte, the semi-state forestry company, and the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) agreed to begin a long-term rewilding project. Five years on and Wild Nephin has been the subject of much controversy. Read more…
July 27th, 2018 A paper published this week by Irish researchers has revealed that an invasive alien spider poses a significant threat to Ireland’s only native terrestrial reptile. The first record of a Nobel False Widow spider feeding on the viviparous lizard in Ireland has been published in the Proceedings Read more…
December 14th, 2017 It was announced earlier this month that the Wild Nephin wilderness area in Co Mayo is set to be incorporated into Ballycroy National Park. The swallowing up of 4,600 hectares of Coillte-owned land currently included in the Wild Nephin will expand the National Parks and Wildlife Service-owned Read more…
December 14th, 2017 Coillte has planted over 260,000 non-native conifer trees in Ireland’s first official wilderness zone over the past four years despite agreeing to phase out commercial forestry in the area in 2013. A plan to phase out planting was agreed in a 2013 Memorandum of Understanding to establish Read more…
December 6th, 2017 More action is needed if Ireland is to meet its national, European and international conservation targets, the latest National Biodiversity Indicators report reveals. The new report published by the National Biodiversity Data Centre (NBDC) used a range of indicators to summarise the condition of Ireland’s natural heritage Read more…
November 28th, 2017 Traditional flood defences such as dams and levees have been employed in Europe for hundreds of years. However, as these so-called “grey infrastructures” are costly and can have devastating impacts on ecosystems, there has been a call for a new approach to flood management. Green infrastructure solutions, Read more…
November 18th, 2017 The impacts of climate change on wildlife were discussed at COP23 in Bonn with innovative assessment tools and novel funding schemes presented as possible solutions. World Wildlife Fund (WWF) hosted a panel discussion Wildlife and Climate Change in the Panda Hub conference room in Bonn on Wednesday. Read more…
November 15th, 2017 A new study has identified the birds and bats most vulnerable to collisions with wind turbines, highlighting a potential conflict between renewable energy developments and biodiversity. The recently published study led by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and funded by the Cambridge Conservation Initiative is the Read more…
November 10th, 2017 The environmental and economic downsides of overfishing in Ireland and the opportunities for sustainable fisheries were explored at an event in Dublin yesterday. The Seabed to Seabird event was organized by BirdWatch Ireland (BWI) in collaboration with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and Read more…
November 9th, 2017 A new initiative led by three of the world’s’ largest environmental NGOs aims to restore and protect one trillion trees by 2050 was outlined at COP23 in Bonn yesterday. The TrillionTrees project, coordinated by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and BirdLife Read more…