National parks to be expanded under new biodiversity plan 

Minister of State for Heritage Malcolm Noonan and NPWS scientific officer Deirdre Lynn. File picture: Iain White Photography

National parks are to be expanded and enhanced while action on wildlife crime is to be strengthened under the new National Biodiversity Action Plan (NBAP).

The NBAP aims to protect and restore nature across the country and is the first biodiversity plan to be backed by legislation, with legal requirements for public bodies.

It aims to tackle “significant impacts” on biodiversity caused by agriculture, forestry, invasive species, and resource extraction.

These issues were highlighted in the key recommendations from the Citizen’s Assembly on Biodiversity Loss, which the NBAP seeks to address.

The plan recognises biodiversity as fundamental to societal wellbeing and economic development while its decline — both globally and in Ireland — poses “serious threats”.

In recent decades, scientists across the world have been documenting “increasingly worrying” declines in biodiversity.

In Ireland, almost a third of EU-protected species and 85% of EU-protected habitats are in unfavourable status, while over half of native Irish plant species have declined in the last 20 years.

Some 30% of Ireland’s semi-natural grasslands have been lost in the past decade while over 52% of key wintering bird species are reported to have short-term declining trends.

Some 48 species living in the Irish marine environment are threatened by extinction.

The plan sets out how Ireland will reverse these declines up to 2030 and will take an “all-of-Government, all-of-society” approach to meet urgent conservation and restoration objectives.

The NBAP which is underpinned by a focus on accountability, resourcing and implementation has 194 actions including developing a nature restoration plan, an increased collaboration on nature-friendly farming and “strategically targeted” efforts on invasive species.

It will also review nature governance across the state and explore how the rights of nature can be formally recognised.

National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) scientific officer Deirdre Lynn, who led the development of the plan, said millions of years of evolution are at stake.

“This plan will provide us with the focus we need to step up action to conserve and restore biodiversity and contribute to our national, regional and global targets,” she said.

Due to its new statutory footing, along with the €3.15bn Climate and Nature Fund, and “people power”, Nature and Heritage Minister Malcolm Noonan said that the NBAP will be an “impact plan”.

“Nature is in trouble, but I believe that it can recover,” he said, adding: 

“We have the passion, we have the knowledge, we have the resources, and now, we have the plan. We can and will turn the tide on nature loss and make change happen — in the skies, under the water, and on the ground, where it matters."