Rewilding Ireland – Projects, Species Reintroductions and the Debate Over Letting Nature Lead

Rewilding Ireland has gone from a fringe concept to one of the most discussed ideas in Irish conservation in the space of a decade. The term covers a spectrum of approaches – from restoring natural processes on degraded land to reintroducing species that were hunted to extinction centuries ago – and it generates strong reactions from farming communities, conservationists and policymakers alike. This guide covers what rewilding means in an Irish context, the projects that are under way, the species reintroductions that have already succeeded, the ones being debated and the fundamental challenges of rewilding a landscape that has been almost entirely managed by humans for thousands of years.

Ireland’s landscape is among the most modified in Europe. Over 67% of the land area is agricultural, native woodland covers just 2%, an estimated 80% of peatlands are degraded and more than 100 species of plant and animal have gone extinct due to human activities. Against that backdrop, rewilding asks a deceptively simple question: what happens if we step back and let natural processes take over? The answers are complicated, politically charged and central to how Ireland addresses its biodiversity and climate crises.

🌿 What Rewilding Means

Rewilding is distinct from traditional conservation, which typically manages habitats to maintain specific conditions for specific species. Instead, rewilding focuses on restoring natural processes – hydrology, grazing dynamics, predator-prey relationships, natural regeneration – and then stepping back to let ecosystems develop with minimal human intervention. The idea is not to recreate a specific historical landscape but to allow natural systems to find their own equilibrium.

In practice, rewilding in Ireland and across Europe tends to involve removing pressures rather than adding interventions. Blocking drains to re-wet bogs, removing non-native plantation trees, reducing or eliminating livestock grazing and taking out barriers in rivers are all forms of rewilding. So is reintroducing keystone species whose absence has disrupted ecosystem function. The scale matters enormously – rewilding a few acres has limited ecological impact, while landscape-scale rewilding across entire river catchments or mountain ranges can transform ecosystems.

🦅 Species Reintroductions

White-Tailed Eagle

The white-tailed eagle reintroduction is Ireland’s flagship rewilding success story. Driven to extinction in the 19th century by persecution, the species was brought back through an 18-year programme run by the NPWS in partnership with the Norwegian Institute of Nature Research. The first phase (2007-2011) released 100 young eagles in Killarney National Park. A second phase began in 2020 to bolster the population, and by August 2025 when the programme was officially completed, a total of 245 chicks had been released into the wild.

The results have been remarkable. There are now an estimated 150 individual white-tailed eagles in Ireland, with 17 known breeding pairs across counties from Cork and Kerry to Clare, Galway, Tipperary, Donegal and even Fermanagh. The population is considered self-sustaining, meaning it can maintain itself without further releases. In 2024, 13 chicks were born from 10 wild pairs. The programme was not without controversy – hill farmers in particular raised concerns about eagle predation on lambs – but it is now widely regarded as a conservation triumph.

Golden Eagle and Red Kite

The golden eagle reintroduction began in 2001 at Glenveagh National Park in Donegal, using birds sourced from Scotland. The programme has been slower to achieve a self-sustaining population than the white-tailed eagle, partly due to the species’ lower reproductive rate and the challenges of illegal poisoning. However, breeding pairs are established in Donegal and the programme has kept the golden eagle present in Irish skies.

Red kites were reintroduced to Wicklow from 2007 using birds from Wales. The population has grown and expanded, with nesting pairs confirmed across several eastern counties. Like the eagles, red kites faced threats from illegal poisoning – particularly from meat baits laced with carbofuran, a banned pesticide – but the population is now considered viable.

The Beaver Question

Beavers are the species most frequently discussed as a future reintroduction candidate for Ireland. As ecosystem engineers, beavers create wetland habitats that benefit a wide range of other species, attenuate flooding, improve water quality and increase habitat diversity. They were once native to Ireland but were hunted to extinction. Scotland has an established and growing beaver population following a formal reintroduction, and England has expanded its beaver programmes. Ireland has no official beaver reintroduction programme, but advocacy groups including the Irish Wildlife Trust have called for feasibility studies, and the topic generates growing public interest.

Wolf and Lynx

The reintroduction of large predators – wolf and lynx – generates periodic media discussion and significant public interest but is not on any official agenda. Ireland’s wolves were hunted to extinction in the 18th century, and the Eurasian lynx has been absent for thousands of years. Proponents argue that top predators are essential for fully functioning ecosystems, controlling deer populations that currently prevent native woodland regeneration. Opponents point to Ireland’s small land area, fragmented landscape, dense farming population and the inevitable livestock conflict. For now, the debate remains theoretical.

🏔️ Rewilding Projects

Wild Nephin – Ballycroy National Park

Wild Nephin in County Mayo is perhaps the closest thing Ireland has to a true wilderness area. Ballycroy National Park, designated as Ireland’s first International Dark Sky Park, covers 15,000 hectares of Atlantic blanket bog flanked by the Nephin Beg mountain range. Coillte’s neighbouring lands include extensive areas of conifer plantation on blanket bog that are being removed as part of rewilding and peatland restoration efforts. The combination of the national park and the surrounding landscape creates one of the largest relatively wild areas in Ireland, with ongoing efforts to restore bog habitat and natural hydrology. In late 2025, renewed commitment was announced to restore the upland habitats of Wild Nephin, including removal of non-native plantations and re-wetting of drained bog.

Rewilding Ireland (Charity)

The charitable organisation Rewilding Ireland has been actively acquiring land in west Cork with the aim of creating large connected rewilded areas. Their approach focuses on removing grazing pressure, allowing natural regeneration of native woodland and restoring wetland habitats. The organisation has also been involved in advocacy and education, promoting the concept of landscape-scale rewilding and making the case that Ireland’s future conservation strategy needs to go beyond managing individual sites in isolation.

Bord na Mona and Coillte – Rewilding by Default

Two of the largest rewilding initiatives in Ireland are not formally labelled as such. Bord na Mona’s rehabilitation of 33,000 hectares of former industrial peatland is, in ecological terms, a massive rewilding project – blocking drains, re-wetting bogs and allowing nature to re-colonise former industrial land. The return of Eurasian cranes to breeding on rehabilitated Bord na Mona bogs after an absence of centuries is a powerful symbol of what happens when natural processes are restored. Similarly, Coillte Nature’s removal of conifer plantations from blanket bogs in the west of Ireland is rewilding in all but name – removing human intervention and allowing the bog to recover its natural state.

Private Initiatives

A growing number of private landowners are undertaking rewilding on their own land. Dunsany Nature Reserve in County Meath has been managed with rewilding principles, allowing areas of farmland to develop into woodland and wetland habitat. Various landowners across the west of Ireland have chosen to remove livestock from marginal land and allow natural processes to proceed. These individual initiatives are small in scale but collectively represent a shift in how some landowners view their relationship with the land.

River Restoration

River rewilding – removing weirs, dams and other barriers to restore natural flow, sediment transport and fish passage – is gaining momentum in Ireland. The EU Nature Restoration Regulation includes a target of restoring 25,000 kilometres of free-flowing rivers across Europe. In Ireland, the National Barrier Mitigation Programme is working with Inland Fisheries Ireland to remove or modify barriers that prevent migratory fish such as Atlantic salmon, sea trout and lamprey from accessing upstream spawning habitat. Since 2024, 14 barriers have been fully mitigated and 27 further projects are active. Budget 2026 allocated specific funding to expand this programme further.

Marine Rewilding

Rewilding is not limited to the land. There is growing interest in marine rewilding in Irish waters, particularly the restoration of native oyster reefs. Flat oyster (Ostrea edulis) beds were once extensive around the Irish coast before being destroyed by overharvesting, disease and the introduction of non-native species. Restored oyster reefs can function as ecosystem engineers, filtering water, providing nursery habitat for fish and crustaceans and supporting entire communities of marine organisms. Several pilot projects are exploring native oyster restoration in Irish estuaries and bays, linking marine conservation with the rewilding philosophy of restoring natural processes rather than managing individual species.

⚡ The Debate

Rewilding provokes strong reactions in Ireland for reasons that are cultural as much as economic. Farming is not just a livelihood in rural Ireland – it is an identity, a way of life and a connection to land that stretches back generations. The suggestion that land should be “given back to nature” can feel like an attack on that identity, particularly when it comes from urban conservationists who may have limited understanding of rural life.

The practical objections are also substantial. Ireland’s landscape is almost entirely managed – there are no large tracts of unproductive wilderness waiting to be rewilded. Almost every hectare has an owner, a use and often a CAP payment attached to it. Land ownership is highly fragmented, making landscape-scale connectivity difficult. Deer populations, in the absence of large predators, are so high that any unprotected tree planting or natural regeneration attempt is likely to fail. And the regulatory framework – from planning to agriculture to forestry – is designed for managed landscapes, not for a model that says “do nothing and see what happens.”

🔮 What Comes Next

The direction of travel in Ireland is towards more rewilding, not less, though the word itself remains politically sensitive. Peatland restoration, native woodland expansion, river barrier removal and species reintroductions are all happening at growing scale, driven by EU obligations, climate targets and a genuine shift in public attitudes towards nature. The question is not whether Ireland will rewild – it is already doing so in practice, even if it does not always use the label – but how much, how fast and how the benefits and costs are shared between those who live on the land and the wider society that benefits from functioning ecosystems.

For those interested in the specific habitats being restored, our guides to peatlands, native woodlands and marine conservation cover the detail. For the species that rewilding aims to protect and restore, see our guide to wildlife in Ireland.