Eoghan Daltun: We need rewilding on a massive scale in Ireland

Killarney’s rich forest is dying, and despite knowing this for more than half a century, authorities have done nothing effective to turn the situation around

Left: Killarney National Park — most of the park is so severely overgrazed by invasive non-native sika deer, feral goats, and sheep that there are no native tree seedlings or ground flora whatsoever — creating the perfect conditions for invasive species, rhododendron ponticum, to take over. Right: Eoghan Daltun's west Cork rainforest following restoration. Pictures: Eoghan Daltun 

Ireland is one of the worst places on the entire planet for nature.

Does that statement seem exaggerated? It’s not: data from every quarter confirms it. For example, in 2018, researchers from the Natural History Museum of London compiled a ‘Biodiversity Intactness index’ of all 240 countries in the world. Ireland came in 13th from the bottom. That’s right: only in 12 countries is nature worse off than here — one of which is Northern Ireland.