All official European Union website addresses are in the europa.eu domain.
See all EU institutions and bodies
An official website of the European Union | How do you know?
Environmental information systems
EN
The indicator shows the share of designated terrestrial protected areas expressed as a share of the total land area. It includes areas protected by other effective area-based conservation measures. The EU and global targets aim for 30% protection.
The graph shows that there was no real change in the percentage of terrestrial protected areas in Ireland between 2016 and 2022. These protected areas include Natura 2000 sites and other national designations. Ireland’s percentage is significantly below the 30% EU target for 2030.
Ireland’s fourth National Biodiversity Action Plan, covering 2023–2030, sets out five objectives to address biodiversity issues in Ireland. Objective 2 aims to meet urgent conservation and restoration needs. Under this objective, the protected marine area network substantially increased from 2.3% to over 9% in 2022–2023 and will be expanded to include Marine Protected Areas.
References and footnotes
- ↵European Environment Agency (EEA), ‘Terrestrial protected area coverage by country and in the EU-27 by end of 2022’, EEA website, 29 November 2024 (created 12 November 2024), accessed 20 June 2025, https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/analysis/indicators/terrestrial-protected-areas-in-europe/terrestrial-protected-area-coverage.
- ↵National Parks and Wildlife Service, Ireland’s 4th National Biodiversity Action Plan – 2023–2030, Dublin, https://www.npws.ie/legislation/national-biodiversity-action-plan.
- ↵EPA, ‘Chapter 12 – Environment and energy’, in: Ireland’s State of the Environment Report 2024, Wexford, 2024, pp. 309–334, https://www.epa.ie/our-services/monitoring--assessment/assessment/state-of-environment-report-/.