Green local elections candidate in Offaly says by protecting nature we protect ourselves

Natura 2000 Day, which fell on Tuesday May 21, highlights Europe’s most precious places for nature. These are sites that have been designated for species or habitats that are important at a European level under either the Habitats Directive, which are known as Special Areas of Conservation (SACs), or the Birds Directive, which are known as Special Protection Areas (SPAs). 

Over 600 of them are in Ireland. According to the European Commission, 65% of people in Europe live five kilometres from one of the region’s 27,000 Natura 2000 sites. 

Niall Ó Donnchú, Director General with the National Parks and Wildlife Services said: “Our Natura sites are vital organs of our living systems. Together, they form the latticework which binds us to nature and nature to us. A fracture in any part of that living matrix undermines the entire. In protecting nature, we protect ourselves.”

National Biodiversity Week follows the launch earlier this year of Ireland’s fourth National Biodiversity Action Plan (2023-2030). The plan sets the national biodiversity agenda for the period 2023-2030 and aims to deliver transformative change to the ways in which we value and protect nature. While the majority of actions within the plan are assigned to public bodies, the National Biodiversity Action Plan is a whole of society initiative.