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Green Party representative for Tralee Anne-Marie Fuller and artist Ciara McKenna pictured with Ciara’s mural of the curlew, celebrating World Wildlife Day on 3 March.
THE Green Party in Kerry is celebrating UN World Wildlife Day by commissioning a new mural in Tralee of the iconic curlew by artist, Ciara McKenna.
World Wildlife Day takes place on March 3. It celebrates and raises awareness of the world’s wild animals and plants.
The mural, which is situated at the Tralee end of the Tralee – Fenit Greenway, depicts a curlew in its natural habitat.
In Ireland, the curlew is among our native species under critical threat of extinction, with a 97% decline of breeding Curlew seen since the 1980s.
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By raising awareness of what is happening in our natural environment and taking the right actions, these trends can be reversed.
Green Party representative for Tralee, Anne-Marie Fuller, said: “The mural highlights that we are connected to wildlife. It is on our doorstep, in our gardens, in our parks, on the verges of walkways, cycleways and roads. And it is often on the verges where different habitats meet, that biodiversity flourishes. For example, our hedgerows can be seen as the equivalent of the Amazon forest for wildlife here in Ireland. It is vital that we look after all habitats and ensure that there are wildlife corridors to connect them so that we sustain all life here in Ireland.”
Kerry artist Ciara McKenna said: “I remember when I was a kid, seabirds used to take refuge from storms in a field behind my parents’ house, you don’t see that so much anymore.
“You don’t have to look to Africa, Asia, South America or any other exotic places to note the depletion of wildlife in our times. Birds and animals on our doorstep are at the verge of extinction. This piece shows the curlew. It is taking refuge in an urban landscape to weather out the storm it faces, which is extinction.”
In January of this year, Green Party Ministers Pippa Hackett and Malcolm Noonan TD combined, along with their respective departments, to drive forward plans to conserve the iconic curlew.
The Ministers announced that the recruitment of 30 contractors to work with the Curlew Conservation Programme around the country would start immediately.
The Curlew Conservation Programme is primarily run and funded by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, which is under Minister Noonan’s remit, but an extra injection of money from Minister Hackett’s Department of Agriculture has enabled the field officers to be put in place earlier in the year than would otherwise have been the case.
The Curlew Conservation Programme, which finds and supports Curlew to rear their young chicks is now in its fifth season.
It was established by the National Parks & Wildlife Service in 2017, with the Department of Agriculture coming on board as partners in 2020. The joint funding package this year will amount to €500,000.
