Hometree’s Journey in Community Engagement: Supporting Ireland’s Green Future

Larkin's Hill organic farm over looking Lough Derg. Organic Simmental-limousin herd grazing in front of a mixed native old woodland.

Séamus O'Riain, Hometree’s Community Engagement Officer, writes about the importance of community engagement and how that can support a more biodiverse future.

Over the past few months, we’ve been busy meeting with landowners and responding to an xciting number of responses following our recent Woodland Creation and Protection support campaign. The response from landowners and farmers across Ireland has been fantastic, filling us with optimism about Ireland’s green future.

We’ve visited an inspiring range of sites - from smallholdings where people want to create their own personal nature havens, to large farmers eager to give more space to wildlife and create habitat corridors. Across the board, landowners we meet envision places where they can spend time surrounded by nature, foster biodiversity, improve water management, and connect with the existing ecosystems around them.

The Native Woodland Conservation Scheme offers assistance to landowners who have existing native woodlands on their lands. In many areas, these native woodlands face significant challenges, particularly from invasive flora and overgrazing by livestock and deer. The scheme offers funding for protective fencing, removal of non-native species and other efforts to support natural regeneration. We have visited some beautiful native woodlands which could greatly benefit from this support, woodlands that may be at present surviving, with the potential to become truly thriving, flourishing woodlands.

Agroforestry is capturing the interest of farmers as a promising alternative to traditional land improvements, which have become costly and often less sustainable. Rising expenses for solutions like drainage are prompting many to consider agroforestry - a model that combines grass production with tree planting, offering multiple benefits. By integrating trees into grazing land, farmers can achieve drier and more resilient pastures, natural shelter for livestock, and increased biodiversity.

This approach provides year-round advantages, from cooling shade in summer to wind protection in winter, creating a healthier and more productive environment for animals while enhancing the land’s ecological value. Agroforestry represents a sustainable pathway for productive farming that supports both the environment and farm resilience.

Forestry schemes in Ireland have generated significant enthusiasm, but one key barrier persists: the shortage of qualified foresters to handle application processing and paperwork. This bottleneck has posed a real challenge for many landowners eager to embark on rewilding efforts, as the demand for forestry expertise far outpaces the current supply.

However, our visits have highlighted an inspiring shift toward community-driven conservation. It’s uplifting to see landowners reaching out to their neighbours and looking beyond their own boundaries to create a broader network of connected natural spaces. This kind of community collaboration has the potential to create powerful, positive change - an interconnected landscape that nurtures Ireland’s ecosystems faster than any invasive species can spread. With this collective momentum, we can foster a landscape regeneration that is both resilient and expansive.

Hometree's community engagement work has received support from the Think Human Fund, managed by the King Baudouin Foundation and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

James Davitt's farm. Sheep farmer from Castlebar, Co. Mayo. Sheep grazing around fenced mature, mixed trees.