International Biodiversity Day marked in Ireland

Wednesday 23^rd May: This week marks the first ever Irish National Biodiversity Week, coinciding with the UN Biodiversity Day, Tuesday 22nd May.

Coillte is at the forefront in protecting and restoring natural habitats across the country and in particular are making strides in restoring unique habitats such as Ireland's ancient yew woodland.

Commenting on the need for these efforts on biodiversity, Pat Neville, Ecologist with Coillte says:

"The EU has set a target to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2010 and projects are underway in Ireland to achieve this target through practical conservation work. Among the restoration operations contributing to stall the loss of biodiversity in natural habitats are three projects, jointly funded by EU LIFE and Coillte, totalling over 3,000 hectares of natural habitat and we are keen to raise awareness of these projects, in particular during this first ever National Biodiversity Week."

The 3 LIFE Projects which Coillte is managing are:

• 1,990 hectares "Restoring active blanket bog in Ireland";
• 571 hectares "Restoring raised bog in Ireland";
• 550 hectares "Restoring priority woodland habitats in Ireland".

Each is the largest project of its kind to be undertaken in Ireland.

The woodland types targeted for restoration by Coillte under the EU Funded LIFE05 project are considered extremely rare in distribution across Europe. Four priority habitats will be improved significantly and conditions will be put in place which will allow priority woodland to regenerate in future years. The types of woodland habitat that will benefit are alluvial, bog, woodland associated with limestone pavement and yew woodland. The habitats are scattered throughout nine counties. For more on this project see

In Ireland, yew woodland is particularly rare. The threat of disappearance to this ancient tree species is being addressed. Yew has always had links to our Celtic mythology and has traditionally been associated with burials from the time of the Druids right up to modern times and Christian graveyards. The yew wood at Killarney (NPWS) currently extends to 25 hectares, which is over 50% of the national resource of this woodland type. Hence, the 33.5 hectares of yew woodland being restored by Coillte is of national significance.

Work is nearing completion on the active blanket bog sites and the results achieved will be presented in October at a conference in Westport, Co Mayo

Restoration work on the 14 raised bog sites spread throughout the Midlands and mid-west of Ireland commenced at the end of 2004. Raised bog once covered 310,000 ha of Ireland, to-day only a small percentage of this area of conservation value remains. The bogs being restored have been selected with the approval of the National Parks and Wildlife Service. By the end of this project, significant habitat restoration work will have been completed on over 5% on the national area of raised bog conserved in SAC's. Raised bog habitats are also very rare in Europe, it has recently been estimated that Ireland contains 50% of the intact raised bog remaining. There are boardwalks on two of the sites (1 close to Athlone, Co. Westmeath and the other near Frenchpark, Co. Roscommon) these boardwalks allow visitors to observe closely, but safely, the recovering bog vegetation. For more information on this project please visit

www.woodlandrestoration.ie www.irishbogrestorationproject.ie www.raisedbogrestoration.ie

National Biodiversity Week is the first ever Irish National Biodiversity Week and will see environmental NGOs host a range of interesting events around the country in association with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government's 'Notice Nature' public awareness campaign. It coincides with The International Day for Biological Diversity: Biodiversity and Climate Change, on Tuesday 22 May 2007. This is under the auspices of The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity of the United Nations.

ENDS

For further details contact:

Tom Byrne, Head of Corporate Communications, Coillte
Tel: 353 1 201 5231 / 086 810 4224

Note to Editors

2007 International Day for Biological Diversity (IBD)22 May 2007

"Biodiversity and Climate Change" is the focus of this year's International Day for Biological Diversity, to be held on 22 May 2007.This complements the designation of 2007 as the International Polar Year and coincides with UNEP'S World Environment Day theme of Climate Change. It is also the theme of the next issue of the Natura 2000 newsletter, to be published in the early summer.

Lectures, seminars, film presentations, cultural events, exhibitions and educational activities are being organised worldwide in order to draw attention to one of the most critical issues facing our planet today. In Belgium in Europe, for example, the Federal Public Service for the Environment (Le Service Public Fédéral Environnement) and the Royal Institute of Natural Sciences (l'Institut royal des Sciences naturelles de Belgique) are organising a competition for schoolchildren "Le réveil de la biodiversité" aimed at awakening an interest in the importance of preserving Europe's biodiversity, which is under threat from Climate Change.

For more information on the event, visit the website of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity at:

http://www.biodiv.org/programmes/outreach/awareness/biodiv-day-2007.shtml.