The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) welcomes the announcement that cabinet has signed off on reform of governance structures for nature conservation in Ireland. An independent review into the National Parks and Wildlife Service last year found fundamental weaknesses in the State’s ability to manage and conserve wildlife areas, provide advice to landowners and state agencies, comply with European law and communicate the wonders of nature to the Irish public.
The IWT has campaigned for this reform for many years and believe that this is the most important policy change needed for addressing the biodiversity emergency in Ireland. We wish to congratulate Minister of State for Heritage and Electoral Reform, Malcolm Noonan, for this important achievement.
IWT campaigns officer, Pádraic Fogarty says: “We have waited a long time for this announcement but we can now look forward to a nature conservation agency that the people of Ireland can be proud of. We urgently need to get on with the task ahead, there is no time to lose. Nature in Ireland has suffered terribly from the neglect of previous administrations but we can now look forward to a fresh start. The work is only beginning but today’s announcement gives us all hope that we can achieve great things.”
CONTACT: Padraic Fogarty IWT Campaigns Officer irishwildlife@iwt.ie