I’ve just announced a new €34m Strategic Nature Project (SNaP) to transform Ireland’s approach to biodiversity data and enable us to track progress on nature protection and restoration. While we've set ambitious targets for nature, unless we have reliable information from a wide range of sources, we can’t know if we’re being effective. This project will greatly improve how we plan, fund and deliver action for nature.
Led by the National Parks and Wildlife Service of my Department, this project will deliver a bespoke platform to provide a robust evidence base to inform nature conservation measures in a transparent way. It also generate public facing dashboards to demonstrate our progress, impact and the value of that work which will be continue to be available to people once the project ends.
For the first time, we will bring together data from a wide range of sources such as results-based payments schemes and measures delivered through the CAP, data from other LIFE projects, European Innovation Partnerships, agri-environmental schemes, data on invasive species and other datasets.
The SNaP will help to identify gaps in conservation and restoration work in Ireland and support the delivery of on-the-ground action and the achievement of key nature objectives under national and European policies, such as the National Biodiversity Action Plan, the forthcoming Invasive Alien Species Management Plan and the national Nature Restoration Plan. It will also inform further measures to advance the restoration of some of our most important habitats, such as peatlands and lagoons.