General Knowledge on Bees Honeybees can recognize and remember human faces, to them we look like strange flowers. They can build respect and trust with people they remember! Bees are also very capable of showing love and affection. Bees are also self-aware animals, meaning they are aware that they are bees, which not all animals […]
Northern Dark Honey Bee Where do They Live? These honey bees live in hollow trees or inside the rooves of houses. They can be found all across Northern Europe. The strain we have here in Ireland is a native species. A large amount of them also live in manmade bee hives as most of the […]
White-Tailed Bumblebee Where do They Live? These fuzzy friends tend to live in farmlands, fields, a garden, or anywhere where they have access to flowers to feed on. You can find them all across Europe and even Japan. They find old abandoned mice nests to create their own underground nest that can house up […]
What next for Forestry? January 28th 2023 Padraic Fogarty It has been a dramatic week in the history of our long and tortured relationship with trees in Ireland. The protests, the outrage among opposition politicians, the people sending emails to their TDs, even the government ministers admitting things need to change, including the State buying […]
Press Release Irish Wildlife Trust welcomes comments from Tánaiste that the State should buy land for rewilding 24th January 2023 The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) welcomes the comments from Tánaiste Micheál Martin, which were reported in today’s Irish Independent newspaper (24/1/23), that the State “must purchase land for native woodlands and for simple rewilding at […]
Time to remove the deer from the Park January 14th 2023 I have written before about the need for rewilding the Phoenix Park, Dublin’s largest urban green space. I bemoan the intensive level of management by the Office of Public Works which minimises it’s biodiversity value: dead or fallen trees cleared away, poor management of […]
EU Nature Restoration Law – What does it mean for marine conservation? What’s happening? In June 2022 the European Commission proposed the Nature Restoration Law (NRL) to bring nature back to Europe. This law has legally binding restoration targets for marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. The goal is to have 20% of land and sea ecosystems […]
Looking back on 2022 December 30th 2022 Are we turning a corner? Or are we stuck in a dead end? Here’s a round up of what happened, and what didn’t, in 2022. February saw the launch of ‘Fair Seas’, a coalition of groups, including the Irish Wildlife Trust, dedicated to the protection of 30% of […]
Press Release 19th December 2022 Irish Wildlife Trust welcomes agreement at COP15 but warns there is an urgent need for implementation The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) welcomes the announcement this morning (December 19th) that the signatories to the Convention on Biological Diversity have concluded a new deal to reverse biodiversity loss and stabilise global ecosystems. […]
Press Release 15th December 2022 Ireland should aim to protect 30% of our land and sea as part of global efforts to reverse biodiversity loss at COP15 The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) is calling on the Irish government, represented at the COP15 meeting in Montreal, Canada by Minister for State Malcolm Noonan, to commit Ireland […]
Press Release: Irish Wildlife Trust welcomes moves to better protect the marine environment 14th December 2022 The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) warmly welcomes the announcement yesterday (December 13th) from Minister of State Malcolm Noonan that there will be new designations of Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) in the waters off Ireland as well as the […]
The Government at COP15 December 11th 2022 COP15, being held in Montreal, Canada, is the biggest, most important event for biodiversity in over a decade. The previous one of this magnitude, held in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, was the last to produce an overarching agreement among the world’s countries to stop the loss of species and […]
Press Release: Irish Wildlife Trust attends COP15, the most important event for biodiversity in over a decade 06th December 2022 The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) will be in Montreal, Canada from Wednesday (7/12) to attend the COP15 meeting, hailed as the biggest meeting for biodiversity in over a decade. COP15 is held under the […]
Press Release: Irish Wildlife Trust welcomes recommendations from the Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss 28th November 2022 The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) warmly welcomes the recommendation from the Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss that the constitution should be amended to better protect biodiversity. The IWT had asked in our submission that the rights of nature […]
Nature Restoration Law 27th November 2022 Democracy requires a lot of talking. Too much talking many might say, and certainly when it comes to the biodiversity and climate emergency we have heard far too much talk accompanied by precious little action. As I write, the Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss has just voted to pass […]
PRESS RELEASE 17th November 2022 Irish Wildlife Trust welcomes Oireachtas committee recommendations to reverse biodiversity loss The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) welcomes the report from the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action on Biodiversity published today (17/11/22). The IWT gave a presentation to committee members during the hearings which took place in 2021. We […]
Crisis of Consultations November 13th 2022 “We want to hear your views”: six words that make hardened environmental activists want to take up smoking. Much time is devoted by NGOs and local community groups to making submissions to ‘public consultations’. This is where the government or one of its agencies asks ‘the public’ for its […]
PRESS RELEASE 08th November 2022 Irish Wildlife Trust welcomes €1.3 billion funding for new forest programme but warns that money alone will not address problems The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) welcomes the additional funding for forestry schemes announced last week (3/11/22) by Minister for Land Use and Biodiversity, Pippa Hackett. The increased grant and premium […]
A revolution is underway October 29th 2022 Loss of biodiversity is a sad feature of humanity since our earliest ancestors first left the plains of Africa, but it was the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas in 1492 that unleashed an assault on the natural world unlike anything seen in human history. The spread […]
Toxic denial October 16th 2022 Denial remains a prevailing feature of the faltering approach to our collapsing biosphere. Outright climate denial has ceased to be a standard feature of debates even if it hasn’t completely disappeared. Extinction denial hasn’t been so noticeable but that is likely due to the fact that biodiversity loss has not […]
Brazil’s national election and the fate of the Amazon Fabiola Gomes Vieira October 1st 2022 Once again Brazil is preparing for a presidential election, only this time the date is surrounded by even more attention and tension than normal. After four years of the government of Jair Bolsonaro, champion of the loosening of environmental protection […]
PRESS RELEASE 29th September 2022 Continuing failure by Ireland to protect peatlands highlighted by the European Commission The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) is welcoming today additional infringement proceedings by the European Commission against Ireland in order to enforce protections for peatlands. In 1992, by signing up to the EU’s Habitats Directive, Ireland agreed to protect some raised […]
PRESS RELEASE 20th September 2022 Irish Wildlife Trust calls for strong new law in submission to the Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) has made a submission to the Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss which calls for a strong new Biodiversity Act that will put the protection and restoration of biodiversity on […]
No more industrial tree farms 17th of September 2022 Will Ireland’s new Forest Strategy prove to be the acorn that went on to be a mighty oak? Or will it be a seed in the wind, destined to land on stony ground? It’s hard to get excited about new strategies, given our long history of […]
PRESS RELEASE 29th July 2022 Emissions reductions deal a dreadful failure of leadership The deal reached by the government, which fails to meet even the minimum legal requirement of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 51% by 2030, has demonstrated a dreadful lack of leadership. The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) is particularly disappointed that more was […]
Dodgy Dealings Under the Sea by Pádraic Fogarty July 23rd 2022 Hundreds of records released to Coastal Concern Alliance, a citizens’ group, under Freedom of Information and Access to Information on the Environment rules raise serious questions for habitat protection and wind farm development in the Irish Sea Was there political interference in designating sites […]
EU nature law could be gamechanger for marine biodiversity, but will be meaningless if fisheries not properly addressed NGOs react to the marine aspects of the law Brussels – Today, the European Commission presented its legislative proposal on nature restoration, a new law with binding targets to restore degraded land and marine ecosystems across the […]
Species in Focus: Cormorant As the summer starts to pick up speed, you might find yourself heading down to the beach to cool off. Keep an eye on the sea when you’re there, and you might spot a cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) out on a fishing trip. Cormorants are common seabirds, although they’re often mixed up […]
Sinn Féin and biodiversity June 11th 2022 The government is nearing its second birthday. At the end of this year, at the halfway point if the government goes to full term, Micheál Martin will be replaced as Taoiseach by Leo Varadkar. While Martin has backed a response to the biodiversity emergency, even addressing the National […]
Revitalising Ireland’s Seas Irish NGO coalition presents report on identifying ‘Areas of Interest’ for Marine Protected Area designation in Irish waters Wednesday, July 6th, 2022, 11 AM (WEST) Where: Zoom Watch the recording of this event here: Event information Fair Seas is an Irish coalition campaign that seeks to build a movement of ocean stewardship […]
