Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 21 November 2023
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action
Citizens' Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed)
Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein)
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I thank our guests for the presentations. I will go back to the recommendations around education. I used to work in Killarney National Park education centre. I am not sure if that was where the assembly held its second session but if it was, our guests were very lucky to be there. What others have said is that our guests opted in and were lucky to be selected. They are like me in having an interest in biodiversity. To expand on the assembly's recommendations about education, what do we need to do to bring that interest and passion for nature and wildlife to everybody else to try to encourage classmates, friends and neighbours to have the same passion and interest in biodiversity? Those people in Wicklow and Kerry are very lucky, but Conor and I live in Dublin and do not have the same resources around us. Is it important to facilitate people to go to education centres, to get up close and personal with nature and to encourage the idea that we are a part of nature and not in control of it? I would like to hear the views of our guests as to how we can encourage everybody to develop a passion for biodiversity.
The rights of nature came up in recommendation 7 of the assembly's report. It also features in the citizens' assembly report. I would love to hear how our guests arrived at that recommendation and where it came from. I am passionate about that idea that nature should be protected in its own right and not just because it provides food for us and ecosystems services and all those phrases. I would be interested to hear how our guests arrived at that position. I would also like to hear a little more about the recommendations on wildlife crime and invasive species.