NCI Steering Committee 2025-2027 on mission to see nature valued & restored

Natural Capital Ireland held our first quarterly Steering Commitee meeting with our newly elected committee members in the beautiful surroundings of IMMA - Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, last weekend - and we were delighted to receive an encouraging letter from the President of Ireland as we prepare to develop a new strategic plan.

NCI Executive Coordinator Deidre Lane holds the letter from President Michael D.Higgins, with Steering Committee members in attendance at the IMMA meeting (L-R) Dr Jimmy O'Keeffe, DCU; Eliot Taylor, Atkins Realis; Ashley Glover, Rewild Wicklow; Owen Murphy, Breeding Waders EIP; Malachy Campbell, Northern Ireland Environment Link; Maria Fitzpatrick, Consulting With Nature and Thomas Ball, KPMG Ireland Sustainable Futures. We were also joined by several more committee members (a high contingent of women!) dialling in online from around the country on the day.

At the hybrid in-person/online meeting, Executive Coordinator Deirdre Lane circulated the letter we received earlier in the year from President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins, congratulating us for our organisation's work of over a decade advocating for the natural capital approach to protect, restore and value nature. (We'll have more on the letter and its contents in a further update.)

Current Steering Committee Chair Dr Jimmy O'Keeffe welcomed both new and returning committee members to the meeting and ensuing discussions laid the groundwork for developing a strong, updated organisational strategy for NCI, drawing on the collective expertise of our group from various sectors and disciplines to help us build on over10 years of work in the natural capital space, which has moved forward in many regards in the past decade, but still much to do to spread the word on the benefits of natural capital frameworks for making nature's hidden value to our society and economy more visible to stakeholders and to counteract potential policy pushback on the progress on nature restoration and nature financing in general.

NCI Director Martina von Richter joined us online with an inspiring update from the Board on the organisation's hopes for 2025 and beyond. Communications Executive Fiona Smith shared the latest on our project work (see more on INCASE, ForES & our collaborative report with Irish Environmental Network on Funding Nature Restoration in Ireland) - and NCI outreach, with almost 1,500 newsletter subscribers and a growing social media following (catch us on Bluesky now also).

A big thank you also to new Steering Committee member Ashley Glover of ReWild Wicklow for giving us an overview of that organisation's work bringing volunteers and landowners together to encourage restoration of habitats where wildlife can really flourish.

Read more on whos who in the NCI Steering Committee, NCI Board and Secretariat HERE and sign up for regular updates on our work HERE.