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.