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Paying Farmers to Swap Cattle for Conservation — the Evidence That It's Starting to Work
Corncrake territories are at a 25-year high, around 34,000 farmers are paid through ACRES, and landowners are making space for nature from the Aran Islands to Meath. The evidence that paying farmers for nature works is getting stronger.
Ireland Has Sent Its First Nature Restoration Plan to Brussels — Here's What's at Stake
Ireland submitted its draft National Nature Restoration Plan to the European Commission on 1 September 2026. With 90% of protected habitats in unfavourable status, an advisory call for a nature fund of up to €700m a year, and 300+ community biodiversity plans already under way, here is what happens next.
Ireland's Atlantic Rainforest Is Coming Back — Acre by Acre, Valley by Valley
Ireland's Atlantic rainforest is one of the rarest habitat types in Europe — ancient temperate woodland reduced to fragments, now the focus of a growing restoration movement combining government schemes, voluntary action and climate recognition.
The Burren: Where Ancient Limestone Meets Europe's Most Unusual Wildflower Display
The Burren in County Clare is one of the few places in the world where Arctic, alpine and Mediterranean plants grow within metres of each other — a 250 square kilometre limestone plateau shaped by geology, climate and a thousand years of traditional farming.
Ireland's Wetlands Are in Trouble — and They Are Taking Our Water Quality With Them
Ireland's wetlands filter water, store carbon and buffer floods — but decades of drainage have left them among the country's most threatened habitats. Inside the EU Nature Restoration Law deadline, Bord na Móna's 80,000 hectare peatland restoration plan and the AI2Peat monitoring project.
One in Three Bee Species in Ireland Is Threatened — Here's What Is Being Done About It
Nearly one in three bee species in Ireland is threatened with extinction. From the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan to €1.8 million in Shared Island funding and a growing citizen-science movement, here is how Ireland is responding to its pollinator crisis.
Ireland's Biodiversity Action Plan Is 80% On Track — But 90% of Protected Habitats Are Still in Trouble
Almost 80% of the National Biodiversity Action Plan's strategic actions are on track or finished, with NPWS funding tripled to €100 million. But 90% of Ireland's protected habitats remain in unfavourable conservation status and 51% are deteriorating, according to the Article 17 Report.