The UN conference, COP17, is taking stock of progress towards a global agreement adopted in 2022 setting out goals to reverse biodiversity loss and ensure people live in harmony with nature.
Ireland has ratified this international framework in its Fourth National Biodiversity Action Plan and the Wildlife (Amendment) Act 2023, which requires public bodies to take biodiversity objectives into account in their policies and work.
As the summit begins, GAP Ireland calls for urgency in measures to restore ecosystems, but also more practical support to help people reconnect with nature.
Restoring nature takes more than protecting habitats and setting global targets. We need to help people reconnect with nature, so we all can remember that people are part of the natural world. Any strategy to undo the damage we have done to Ireland’s biodiversity must support communities to get involved and take action together. This is how we can build social change.
Through its work in communities, schools and workplaces, GAP helps people develop this connection through shared experience and practical action. Its GLAS community gardens, for example, bring people together to grow food, care for soil, experience biodiversity and strengthen community relationships. Through its involvement in this week’s ISSN Climate and Nature Summit, for instance, GAP supports teachers and young people to explore environmental challenges and the role they can play in creating change.
GAP Ireland believes these approaches deserve a bigger place in environmental policy.
That is why GAP calls for greater investment in environmental education, community-led initiatives and volunteering. It also calls on the Government to recognise that change depends on the conditions people live in, including the policies and economic systems that shape everyday people’s choices.
Communities should not be expected to solve the biodiversity crisis on their own. Governments and institutions must lead and create the conditions for change. But people also need opportunities to experience nature in their daily lives. Reconnecting people with the natural world is an essential part of any strategy to bring about change.
Ireland needs both the policies and investment that directly restore biodiversity, and sustained support for communities to build their relationship with nature and participate in environmental action.
As COP17 focuses on moving from commitments to implementation, GAP Ireland is calling for community participation and reconnection with nature to be recognised as essential parts of Ireland’s response to biodiversity loss.