The Government has been criticised for dragging its heels on reform of the National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS), and for its failure to publish an independent review of its operation committed to in the programme.
Minister of State for Heritage Malcolm Noonan has now confirmed that a plan to transform the NPWS will shortly go before Cabinet. This is hoped to increase resources to help arrest species loss and habitat decline in the country.
“It’s going to represent a transformation in the organisation, and it has to,” Minister Noonan commented. He said however that a new five-year national biodiversity action plan, the outcome of the Citizens’ Assembly on biodiversity loss, and the EU’s new biodiversity plan and nature law will be “hugely challenging”.
The National Biodiversity Conference at Dublin Castle in June 2022 will gather together experts under an “act now for nature” theme. This would offer an opportunity for public consultation on the biodiversity plan. “We are losing global biodiversity at a rate unprecedented in human history. In Ireland, many of our protected habitats are in poor condition and 14% of assessed species are thought to be endangered. This ongoing biodiversity loss poses a threat not alone to our environment and natural heritage, but to our economy, society and to individual quality of life,” he warned.
“We need a diversity of voices to come together to discuss challenges, explore solutions and establish ways to collaborate more effectively on implementation. I’d like to encourage everyone – farmers, foresters, fishers, scientists, community groups, local authorities, NGOs, state agencies, businesses, young people and everyone else besides – to get involved.”
The next biodiversity plan will seek urgent solutions to reverse losses, enable protection, support conservation and deliver restoration through “an all-of-Government, all-of-society approach”, he said.
The minister encouraged people and interested organisations to register for the conference, to have their say. It will be streamed live online as will satellite events to highlight the importance of biodiversity prior to the event.