Ireland's quiet rewilding: bringing back the bogs and native woods in 2026

As someone who writes about nature and loves this island fiercely, I have long carried a quiet grief about the state of our land. So it means a great deal to me to report that, in 2026, the mood is genuinely shifting. Ireland is beginning to give land back to nature, and after years of decline, that change feels less like a slogan and more like the first real turning of the tide.

An honest look at the damage

We cannot talk about recovery without facing the losses. More than 67 percent of the country is given over to agriculture, native woodland covers a mere 2 percent, and an estimated 80 percent of our peatlands are degraded. Over a hundred species of plant and animal have already vanished from these shores through human activity. Those numbers are painful, but naming them honestly is the first step toward repairing the harm.

Restoration at a growing scale

The encouraging news is momentum. Peatland restoration, native woodland expansion, the removal of river barriers and even species reintroductions are now happening at a growing scale, driven by climate targets and a real change in how people feel about wild places. There is enormous potential to reinstate native woodland in our uplands and heal the bogs, easing floods, storing carbon and welcoming back everything from wild bees to great birds of prey.

Why the bogs matter so much

If I could ask people to care about one thing, it would be the bogs. Around 20 percent of Ireland is covered in peatland, and peatlands are among the most effective carbon sinks on Earth, holding roughly 30 percent of all the carbon stored in the world's soils. A healthy bog quietly locks away carbon dioxide for millennia. A drained, damaged one releases it. The stakes could hardly be higher, or more invisible.

A telling change of direction

Perhaps the most symbolic shift is at Bord na Mona, which has moved away from harvesting peat toward restoring the very land it once cut. Alongside it, the Afforestation Scheme offers grants to landowners who return part of their fields to native woodland. When the institutions that once extracted from nature start repairing it, you know something deeper has changed in the national conversation.

Why I allow myself hope

Events like Bog Day, marked again this year on the 27th of July, bring communities and scientists together to celebrate these landscapes rather than mourn them, and that spirit gives me hope. Rewilding will not undo a century of loss overnight, but 2026 shows a country learning to value what it still has. If we keep going, the Ireland we hand on could be wilder, wetter and more alive than the one we inherited.