The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) is seeking the public’s views on the future of Ireland’s newest national park.
Páirc Náisiúnta na Mara, Ciarraí includes more than 77,000ac of lands and seas in public ownership around Corca Dhuibhne and the Dingle Peninsula in Co. Kerry.
The park, which was established in April, comprises several sites of ecological, cultural, historical and archaeological significance.
National park
Minister of State for Nature, Heritage and Electoral Reform, Malcolm Noonan has encouraged individual members of the public, organisations and community groups across the country to have their say on how the park is managed in the years ahead.
“The lands and seas in our national parks are in public ownership and it is crucial that the views of the public on how these parks are to be managed, are heard by policymakers.
“The responses to this national public consultation will help to shape the future management of Páirc Náisiúnta na Mara, Ciarraí over the coming years, so that we can protect the unique treasure of nature and heritage within the páirc now and for future generations,” he said.
“Following the strong level of local and community engagement already in place, the wider national public consultation is now open and will run until Friday, January 3.
“All of the submissions received will be carefully considered by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), and will help inform the future management of the páirc,” Minister Noonan added.
Meanwhile, the NPWS is to commission habitat condition assessments on two sites in Páirc Náisiúnta na Mara, Ciarraí.
The project will involve a desktop review of the existing ecological datasets and a habitat condition assessment of land within the park at the Owenmore River Valley and Mount Brandon Uplands.
Habitats at these sites were last mapped during the National Survey of Upland Habitats carried out between 2011 and 2013.
The Department of Housing Local Government and Heritage, of which the NPWS is a division, is currently inviting tenders from service providers to update this data.
The NPWS said that this project is seeking to build on the “detailed baseline” achieved during the previous survey and assess current conservation status of the habitats.