DUE TO UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES WE HAD TO CANCEL TODAY’S EVENT. WE WILL RESCHEDULE AS SOON AS WE CAN. APOLOGIES FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE. HAPPY EARTH DAY.
CELEBRATE EARTH DAY WITH US ON FRIDAY APRIL 22nd
We will celebrate EARTH DAY with a Rights of Nature ceremony in Ardee Bog at 2.30PM.
Join us at the Fair Green in Ardee at 12PM. At 12.30PM we will start walking out the old bog road. The ceremony celebrating the Rights of Nature will take place in Corstown Bog at 2.30PM.
SCHEDULE, FRIDAY APRIL 22:
12PM: MEET at the Fair Green in Ardee
12.30PM: WALK out the old bog road to Corstown Bog*
2.30PM: CEREMONY at Corstown Bog, facilitated by the Celtic Druid Temple
3.30PM: Weather permitting, we will finish with a picnic at Corstown Lake (leave no trace!)**
Celtic Druid Temple is a registered charity celebrating the indigenous spiritual wisdom of this Land. Members and friends gather in ceremony at every full moon, solar festival and rite of passage on sacred sites, in private temples and in places of great beauty throughout Ireland. Celtic Druid Temple seeks to restore and strengthen the lawful relationship between people and Nature.
EVERYONE IS WELCOME! FAMILY FRIENDLY! DOGS ON LEADS, PLEASE!
*There is limited parking at Corstown Bog, so those who can’t walk can meet us there. But we hope that everyone will try to join us for the walk!
**There might be limited space in cars/bus to take people back to town after the ceremony.
SEE YOU THERE!
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Click here to learn more about Earth Day 2022.
Friends of Ardee Bog call on the Irish Government to embrace the Rights of Nature.
FAB’s Earth Day ceremony in Ardee Bog is part of the national and international Rights of Nature movement. In 2021, Rights of Nature (RoN) was adopted for the first time in Ireland by Derry City & Strabane and Donegal district councils. Internationally, the RoN movement has been led primarily by indigenous groups, with rights being granted to rivers and other ecosystems across the world in Ecuador, New Zealand, India, and across Africa, and the USA.
We are facing a planetary emergency. Efforts are intensifying to include Ecocide as a crime against humanity and, as such, to be sanctioned by international criminal justice. This points to the need to enact crimes against humanity & nature. Rights of Nature is inevitable. The sooner Ireland adopts it, the better.
In May 2019 Ireland declared a Climate and Biological Emergency. Ireland’s Climate Action Plan states that “Peatlands represent 64% of our total soil organic carbon stock, representing the largest store of carbon in the Irish landscape.”[1] Yet Ireland’s raised bogs are on the verge of extinction.[2] We must protect all bogs on the island of Ireland. FAB’s ceremony is the first to call for Rights of Bogs.
Peatlands are Ireland's rainforest.[3] Ardee Bog is a raised bog and plays a vital role in mitigating the effects of climate change by storing vast amounts of carbon. Irish peatlands store dramatically more carbon than agriculture or forestry. Peatlands like Ardee Bog are our most important long-term carbon sink. They sequester and store atmospheric carbon for thousands of years. The IPCC estimates that Ireland’s peatlands store 1085 mega tonnes of carbon. Our bogs need to be protected at all costs.
Ardee Bog took 7,000 - 10,000 years to form. The Irish Peatland Conservation Council (IPCC) says “Ardee Bog is the very last and most easterly raised bog within County Louth and the Republic of Ireland.”[4] The Louth Wetlands Identification survey designated Ardee Bog as National Grade B importance.[5] Friends of Ardee Bog is a local environmental community group founded in 2019, dedicated to protecting and preserving the bog. Ardee Bog can’t speak, so we are her voice.
"We are calling on the Irish government to respect the urgency of the climate emergency and the importance of places like Ardee Bog as ecological wonders. It is our duty to protect these precious ecosystems. It is time for Ireland to embrace the Rights of Nature." - Katie Holten, Friends of Ardee Bog.
In order to protect both the natural ecosystems of Ireland’s precious peatlands and all the communities that rely on them, Friends of Ardee Bog advocates that Ardee Bog – and all bogs on the island of Ireland – be granted inalienable rights to be protected under law.
[1] IPCC on Peatlands as Carbon Sinks: https://www.ipcc.ie/a-to-z-peatlands/irelands-peatland-conservation-action-plan/peatland-actionplan/climate-change-and-irish-peatlands/
[2] Pádraic Fogarty, “The Battle to Save the Bogs” in Whittled Away: Ireland’s Vanishing Nature, 2017, page 223.
[3] https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/rare-moss-thought-to-be-extinct-in-ireland-found-in-offaly-bog-1.1837276
[4] In 1990 & 1998 the IPCC surveyed Ardee Bog, identifying a core area for conservation surrounded by a buffer zone of supporting habitat.
[5] Louth Wetlands Identification Survey 2011; Foss, Crushel, O Loughlin & Wilson (Peter Foss surveyed Ardee pNHA where the road is routed)
We are grateful to all our friends and supporters for helping in the fight for Rights of Nature and Climate Justice.
