January 20th, 2020 Ireland’s natural world is in appalling shape and needs the full backing of the public to push election candidates to bring it back from the brink, a leading nature conservation group has warned. Launching its Manifesto for Nature this afternoon, BirdWatch Ireland (BWI) starkly laid out the current state of our ailing […]
January 10th, 2020 A landowner and contractor charged with the destruction of vegetation growing in a hedge during the 2019 bird nesting season plead guilty at Nenagh District Court in December. On 12 December 2019, Judge Cormac Dunne fined the landowner €750 under the Wildlife Acts for offences carried out near Tiermoyle in Co Tipperary. […]
January 10th, 2020 South Dublin residents will protest this Sunday against plans to straighten out the Poddle River for flood defence works that critics argue will negatively impact wildlife in two nearby parks. The plan developed by South Dublin County Council (SDCC), Dublin County Council and the Office of Public Works (OPW) would see a flood defence wall built […]
December 18th, 2019 EU fisheries Ministers have agreed to set various fisheries quota levels above scientifically suggested levels and will fail to meet their own legal deadline to end overfishing by 2020. The EU AGRIFISH Council meeting closed in Brussels this morning following all-night negotiations as is typical in recent years, with the need to […]
December 10th, 2019 The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has warned that the overall quality of Ireland’s lakes, rivers and estuaries is deteriorating, reversing all gains achieved in recent years. The EPA’s latest Water Quality report describes the quality of water in half of our river resources as “unsatisfactory”, while the number of pristine river sites […]
December 4th, 2019 Europe is failing across the board to protect the natural world and continues to face environmental challenges on an unprecedented scale, the EU’s environmental watchdog has warned. The European Environment Agency’s (EEA) latest State of the Environment report provides a stark snapshot of where Europe stands in meeting its environmental policy targets […]
November 7th, 2019 Several environmental groups have criticised a €7 million project to ramp up tourist numbers on Dursey Island that they say would be detrimental to Ireland’s wild coastal landscape. The proposed development – a joint venture between Fáilte Ireland and Cork County Council – includes plans for a new two-way cable car system […]
November 4th, 2019 Over 2,500 scientists have sent a letter to the European Parliament outlining “catastrophic declines” suffered by birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and insects from intensive agricultural practices. The letter details the effects that an increasingly intensive agriculture model is having on biodiversity, with the scientists calling for a “far-reaching reform” of the bloc’s […]
October 23rd, 2019 The Government has launched a public consultation to examine the use of peat in the horticultural industry that critics say is helping to drive the exploitation of our carbon-rich bogs. The consultation is part of a belated review process, long sought after by conservation groups and peatland experts, that was listed […]
October 23rd, 2019 Continued drainage and degradation of Ireland’s bogs will ensure that we lose one of our crucial weapons in our efforts to avoid climate catastrophe, a leading peatland expert has warned. Speaking at a hearing of the Climate Action Committee this afternoon, UCD’s Dr Florence Renou-Wilson said that restoring our peatlands ecosystem – […]
