Writing for life

Published in the Evening Echo 21/05/2008

Watching “Wild China” on the BBC tonight was amazing. I never knew, for example, that wild Asian elephants still survive in the forests of central China, or that gibbons – which I thought confined to South East Asia – still roam the canopy in some of China’s forests. The sheer diversity of life unfolding on the screen was staggering – plants, insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals.

But like so many of the world’s wild places, the amazing biodiversity of these Chinese forests is under threat. Much of China’s virgin rainforest has been felled to make way for rubber plantations – rubber that’s helping to fuel the inexorable rise of one of the world’s fastest growing economies. The economic imperative, as so often seems to happen, overrides the environmental one: short term gain taking precedence over long-term vision.

Much closer to home, we’d spent much of the day looking at biodiversity on a much smaller, but equally fascinating scale in one of Ireland’s wild places. Ireland’s National Biodiversity Week is running from 18 to 25 May this year, scheduled to coincide with the United Nations International Day for Biodiversity on 22 May.

“Biodiversity Week is Ireland’s contribution to a global celebration of biodiversity which aims to increase awareness of the importance of biodiversity and promote action to tackle the loss of many of our species,” said Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, John Gormley, TD, as he unveiled the nationwide programme of events last week. “This is the second year that my Department has supported Biodiversity Week and already it has developed to the extent that we now have over 200 events taking place throughout the country.” And I have to say it’s a laudable effort in a country where we have plenty to redress when it comes to our environmental credentials.

Keen to get involved, and to expose the children to more of the wonders of Irish nature, we headed out to a Biodiversity Day event at the Irish Natural Forestry Foundation’s headquarters in Manch Estate, Balineen.

First up was a slide show and talk from renowned West Cork wildlife photographer Mike Brown, who displayed, through a breathtaking series of photographs, just how varied and beautiful Ireland’s natural heritage really is. After the talk Mike led a walk into the native broadleaf woodland surrounding the estate, demonstrating how looking at nature from a different perspective can reveal the hidden wonder of some very common species.

Another speaker revealed that we have over 1,000 moth species in Ireland, compared to just 37 species of butterfly. The girls were enthralled when we went to inspect a moth trap, and got to see some of them up close.

There were all sorts of talks and demonstrations covering everything from hedgerow diversity and sustainable forestry to harvesting timber with horses and plenty of children’s activities to get the youngsters involved and engaged with nature. This was real hands-on stuff, and the kids loved it.

It was a great day out, and I applaud the organisers for their efforts… but looking around I couldn’t help but think that they were preaching to the converted. The vast majority of people were binocular wielding, camouflage wearing nature enthusiasts or rainbow jumpered sustainable living types: mostly people who are only too aware of biodiversity and the need to conserve it. What events like this really need to do is appeal to people outside the established niche and bring the message to the masses. Then they might… just might… start to make a difference.