Call to close Burren National Park - Visitor numbers unsustainable

Our impact on the world around us, as this week’s UN conference confirms, is the issue of the age. Some of those impositions are, ironically, consequences of our celebration of the magnificence of the world we live in.

Those celebrations can be overwhelming for the environments they identify.

Too many people turn up and what was once beautiful is unintentionally degraded by the very people who admire it most.

This has meant curtailed visitor numbers at America’s awe-inspiring national parks; access is now a privilege rather than a right.

Some European cities have adopted the same position.

We may have to follow suit. In 2003, 168,000 people came here to take hillwalking holidays. Last year, it was almost 2.35m, around half of whom were Irish.

You do not need to be Greta Thunberg to realise this growth is unsustainable.

Efforts are under way to manage visitor numbers in our uplands. In Kerry, the MacGillycuddy Reeks Mountain Access Forum was established in 2014 to control growing vistor numbers.

Those concerns have been echoed in Clare in recent days where residents living close to Mullaghmore mountain suggested that the Burren National Park be closed to tourists until proper facilities are developed.

Even if these issues are resolved it will take a huge cultural shift to accept that access to the great outdoors is a privilege but not a right.

Sadly, that process will be exploited by politicians who have no interest in protecting the environment.