In March 2023, the Irish Bishops’ Conference agreed that Parishes would return 30% of church grounds to nature by 2030. This is in response to the biodiversity crisis our world is facing and the call of Laudato Si’ (Pope Francis’s encyclical). The call is for all to come together to help stop the decline of biodiversity for the sake of the next generation.
This call was reflected in an invitation in the Wexford Parish Newsletter for parishioners to come forward and to begin a conversation on how they, as a faith community could be more responsible stewards of the environment. As a result in January, 2022 a small group called ‘Wexford Parish Care for the Earth Group’ was formed. This group has now come together with Wexford County Council’s Biodiversity and Environmental awareness officers to advance the ‘Return to Nature’ project in association with Bishop Ger Nash and the Parish Priests of Wexford.
The project, which will commence as a pilot in 2025, will link local parishes with the County Council to implement biodiversity actions on church grounds. Positive actions might include installing nest boxes for barn owl and swift (both are species experiencing population declines); developing and implementing a pollinator plan for church lands to provide a food source for our declining pollinators; erecting bat roost boxes on trees; planting pollinator friendly fruit trees; erecting other bird boxes and erecting pollinator friendly signage.
If you would like to take part and think your parish and its community could take some positive actions for nature please indicate your interest in this form here.
This project is open to groups of all faiths.
You must have the consent of your local Parish Priest to take part.
Please note this 2025 project is a pilot project with a maximum of 6 parishes/faith groups being invited to take part. Further parishes will be invited to take part in 2026.
To read more about Laudato Si, see here Laudato Si - Pope Francis
To read more about the Bishops Conference of 2023 and the Returning to Nature project please see Returning to Nature | Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference
The All Ireland Pollinator Plan is a fantastic resource and outlines they type of positive actions that will support biodiversity. Read more here Faith-Communities-Pollinator-Guidelines-2022-WEB.pdf