An Overview of Dublin City’s Biodiversity

Biodiversity is the variability amongst living organisms from all sources which includes diversity within and between different species, and ecosystems. Dublin City’s biodiversity consists of the wildlife and habitats located at North Bull Island, and also along the city’s coastline. Dublin biodiversity further includes Phoenix Park, rivers, canals and their riparian zones. Dublin supports à lot of legally-protected habitats along its coastline.
Invasive species of diverse living organisms, climate change issues such as global warming, the loss of habitats, environmental pollution, and anthropogenic activities, all collude to threaten Dublin’s biodiversity. Preserving Dublin’s biodiversity would require a combination of various approaches such as direct and appropriate management of the city’s biodiversity at both local and regional levels, as well as being able to identify and protect conservation high value areas in the city. This methods would also require going ‘green’, and stimulating awareness amongst the citizenry as regards their orientation towards biodiversity.
Dublin has over 750 public parks and green spaces, covering an estimated 1400 hectares of land. Private gardens make up one-quarter of the city’s land mass. Due to its propensity for harbouring invasive species as a result of too many pathways that lead into the city, the Dublin City Council is saddled with the responsibility of monitoring and controlling the influx of invasive alien species of living organisms. The National Biodiversity Data Centre (NBDC), is the national organization in charge of collating, managing, analyzing, and disseminating data on Ireland’s biodiversity.
In line with the outcome of UNESCO’s review of the Dublin Bay Biosphere sometime between 2012 and 2014, the Dublin Bay Biosphere Partnership has been established for the management of the Dublin Bay Biosphere Reserve. The Partnership/MOU consists of Dublin City Council, Fingal County Council, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, Dublin Port Company, and the National Parks and Wildlife Service.
In all, the Dublin City Biodiversity Action Plan is not just restricted to the preservation of biodiversity in Dublin City alone. It is actually part of a grand objective to conserve the global biodiversity.