Killarney National Park being allowed to die away, climate change conference hears

Ancient Ireland was around 80% forest with the rest made up of the likes of bogs. Today, that figure is a paltry 1% to 1.5%, rewilding campaigner Eoghan Daltun said.

Rewilding campaigner Eoghan Daltun said it is "inexcusable" that nothing has been done to prevent Killarney National Park's descent into an overgrazed land that is overrun by invasive species. File picture

Killarney National Park is in a "terrible state" and is being allowed to die away because of 50 years of problems being ignored, a leading climate change conference has heard.

Rewilding campaigner Eoghan Daltun, whose book on restoring nature on his West Cork farm in recent years has been widely acclaimed, told Dublin City University's (DCU) Centre for Climate and Society Annual Conference that despite "ecological wreckage" in recent decades, there is still hope when it comes to reviving the likes of Killarney National Park. Mr Daltun is the author of An Irish Atlantic Rainforest: A Personal Journey into the Magic of Rewilding.

Problems in Killarney National Park have been called out for 50 years but it is "inexcusable" that nothing has been done to prevent its descent into an overgrazed land that is overrun by invasive species, he claimed to spontaneous applause from those in attendance.

Ancient Ireland was around 80% forest, he said, with the rest made up of the likes of bogs. Today, that figure is a paltry 1% to 1.5%, he said. The tiny remnants left in Ireland, including Killarney, are still being "ecologically trashed", that is, consumed by wild deer and cattle — that overgrazing has led to only invasive species being able to thrive, such as rhododendron, he added.

Rewilding is a solution but is still misunderstood, Mr Daltun said, as one of the two keynote speakers alongside Environment and Transport Minister Eamon Ryan. He outlined his own farm in Beara where an erected fence excluded goats and sika deer in the vicinity leading to an "eruption" of wildflowers of all types, while insects, pollinators, and birds returned. 

Baby trees started to grow, while his farm is "literally buzzing and teeming with insects and birdlife", he said. Rewilding is not about returning to a nostalgic time in the past as a persistent myth suggests, according to Mr Daltun.

Eoghan Daltun: "Rewilding is not about returning to a nostalgic time in the past as a persistent myth suggests." Photo: Don MacMonagle

"Having painted a dismal picture, there is hope. Rewilding is about making space for nature to return. When we remove artificial impediments, nature can come roaring back," he said. "It is about allowing ecosystems to function and regulate...taking away what is hindering them from thriving."

He cited legendary American biologist and ecologist Edward O Wilson, who said if half of the planet is set aside for rewilding, then 85% of existing species can survive. The stark figure that 15% of biodiversity would die out even with half of the planet set aside for rewilding is indicative of the crisis the world is in, he warned.

Irish farmers have been pressured into mass intensification and are trapped in the cycle, he said. Farmers are fundamentally decent people who can be part of the solution if supported, he said.

The conference, now in its third year, also heard roundtable discussions on policy-making in the dual climate and biodiversity crises and corporate responses to climate change and biodiversity loss.