Pádraic Fogarty: Society has a ‘values crisis’ when it comes to Nature

What happens when nature comes up against the stubborn power of vested interests, asks ecologist Pádraic Fogarty

Killarney National Park, County Kerry: The management and establishment of forests in Ireland is a key part of how we use our land and is associated — for good but mostly for ill — with a range of environmental, social, and economic issues

In February 2021, the Government announced the launch of ‘Project Woodland’ to, in the words of their press release, “tackle issues in forestry”. The management and establishment of forests in Ireland is a key part of how we use our land and is associated — for good but mostly for ill — with a range of environmental, social, and economic issues. Minister for Land Use and Biodiversity, the Green Party’s Pippa Hackett, was keen to emphasise that “timber production is important, but trees are about more than timber. They are also about beauty, biodiversity, the environment, carbon capture, community enjoyment and enterprise, and social good”. In doing so, she was articulating the range of values associated with nature, in this case forests, but it could just as easily be applied to rivers, bogs, the ocean, or farmland.

A range of public consultations which included a mini-citizens’ assembly, surveys of public attitudes, online consultation, and targeted interviews with ‘stakeholders’ strongly supported the minister’s assessment. It was as clear as crystal that most people want more forests, and are happy to see commercial forests producing timber, but that forests for nature and climate should be prioritised over purely financial values.