Communities to the fore in wetlands protection

On Saturday, October 8, a group from Cabragh Wetlands in Thurles visited Cloughjordan's Scohaboy Bog SAC to learn more about the conservation programme there.

For the visit, Michael Long was the lead for the Cabragh Wetlands Group and Gearóid Ó Foighil was the lead for the guided Scohaboy tour. Cabragh and Scohaboy are the Tipperary members of the national Community Wetlands Forum, the main aim of which is to provide a representative platform for community-led wetland conservation groups based on the principles of community development (empowerment; participation; inclusion; self-determination; and partnership). Today the CWF has over thirty community group members and fifteen stakeholder members, including the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the Irish RAMSAR Wetlands Committee and Irish Rural Link.

The different community groups are involved in all sizes of wetlands projects from local pond restoration to raised bog conservation and all are united by the commitment to promote wetlands and peatlands as important places of biodiversity and conservation, as well as community integration, well-being and ownership.

Wetlands provide essential services for landscapes and society by retaining and purifying water, removing pollutants and excess nutrients, storing atmospheric carbon and moderating flooding. They support an immense variety of wildlife, and offer recreational, well-being and employment opportunities to surrounding communities. However, when mismanaged, these valuable services are lost and increasingly there is an urgent need to scale up from restoring isolated wetland reserves and move towards redesigning wetland landscapes.

Working alongside the CWF is the Connecting Communities With Peatlands project (CCWP). This is a Just Transition Fund project which aims to equip communities in the Midlands (including North Tipperary) with knowledge, skills, tools, experience, and research through training and the Community Wetlands Forum network to encourage and motivate community-led peatland engagement, conservation, and management for sustainable communities. Littleton Bog outside Thurles is a key location for assessment and development involving the local community and Tipperary County Council. Since 2021, CCWP have provided free capacity-building training for community groups to support them in their efforts to engage with their local bog covering a range of topics: heritage, the arts, conservation, education, community development, governance, recreation, tourism, etc.

Whilst the CWF and CCWP have dedicated development officers, the main thrust of the community wetlands engagement movement is community and volunteer led. This is the heart of all the conservation efforts, local people seeking to conserve and restore their local wetland habitats. The Tipperary Heritage Office commissioned Wetlands Surveys Ireland to survey wetlands and peatlands across the county in order to get a fuller picture of the scale and importance of these unique and increasingly threatened natural heritage landscapes.

Internationally, the intergovernmental RAMSAR convention spells out the framework for wetlands protection and signatory countries (including Ireland) are obligated to designate and protect wetland sites of strategic importance. In 2010 the Irish government established the Irish RAMSAR Wetlands Committee involving government departments, state agencies, universities and national NGO’s. The group have recently developed a draft National Wetlands Policy, the first of its kind in Ireland, to better inform protections and practices. The Community Wetlands Forum are represented on the committee bringing an important community and volunteer voice to the table. Cloughjordan’s Scohaboy Bog SAC is currently in assessment to become Tipperary’s first RAMSAR site.