Nature and wildlife bodies should have resources to go green by example

The plan announced by forestry agency Coillte this week to turn some State forests into recreational areas is very welcome. The body also announced very laudable plans to encourage native species and support diversity.

These initiatives have, by reintroducing many people to the beauty and vitality of our natural world, the potential to help win hearts and minds so the climate action plan announced early this week might get the community buy-in essential to its delivery.

After all, there is no better way to win champions for a cause than to show how it, responsible stewardship of the environment in this case, can have wonderful results.

How welcome it would be if the National Parks and Wildlife Services and Inland Fisheries Ireland, the watchdog agency EPA too, were given the resources to have a meaningful impact in their areas of responsibility, especially in our under-resourced national parks and threatened waterways.

For relatively small investment these agencies could be very influential in delivering the huge cultural change needed around environment and climate collapse measures.