What needs to be done?

In the battle to preserve any country’s biodiversity the front line is that country’s National Parks. We have six, which is an adequate rather than an impressive number. They are in counties Donegal, Mayo, Galway, Clare, Kerry and Wicklow. This is quite a wide geographical spread, though they’re all coastal counties and the centre of the country is not represented. This is a clue to the major deficiency in our National Parks system.

Connemara Ponies, Connemara National Park

A herd of pure-bred Connemara ponies were presented to Connemara National Park by former President of Ireland Erskine Childers. <br> <br> Connemara ponies are the only pony native to Ireland.

© Department of the Enviornment, Heritage and Local Government

Connemara Ponies, Connemara National Park
© Department of the Enviornment, Heritage and Local Government

Connemara Ponies, Connemara National Park

A herd of pure-bred Connemara ponies were presented to Connemara National Park by former President of Ireland Erskine Childers. <br> <br> Connemara ponies are the only pony native to Ireland.

© Department of the Enviornment, Heritage and Local Government

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National Parks should preserve a wide variety of habitats. However, four out of our six are predominantly upland blanket bog. One, in Killarney, has a lot of upland blanket bog along with some good woodland, and only the small park in the Burren, which is on limestone pavement, has no blanket bog at all.

Blanket bog is important but it’s by no means the only habitat type that needs protection. We urgently need National Parks that include sand dune systems with machair vegetation, midland raised bogs, old woodlands, like Saint John’s Wood in Co. Roscommon, river callows and unimproved grassland.

In fact the sites of our existing National Parks were not chosen for conservation reasons. They were either estates that were donated to the nation or they were acquired because the land was of little agricultural value and very few people lived there. These are not good reasons if you’re serious about preserving biodiversity.