LET'S CELEBRATE AND PROTECT THE ROYAL CANAL
Royal Canal Biodiversity Walk
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The Royal Canal began in Phibsboro in 1790 at what is now Crossguns Bridge / Over time, It has become a naturalised lifeline for an incredible amount of plants, insects, birds, fish and protected species such as otters and bats.
New Greenway projects — such as Royal Canal Phase 4 — can be a fantastic opportunity to enhance biodiversity and change the way we approach greenway development in Ireland.
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Phase 4 could provide 21st century nature-based solutions and be a best practice example in its construction as opposed to other examples of over-engineered and ecologically damaging road-building greenway projects as sadly can be so often the case.
Ireland’s Sixth National Report to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity reported that 91% of protected habitats in Ireland are in poor or inadequate condition and more than 50% are declining, while 14% of species assessed were considered as endangered.
DCC’s habitat map shows that built surfaces account for 43% of land use and among the other categories only 1% is freshwater habitat which makes it a very rare environment.
DCC’s BAP states, “The banks of the city’s canals also provide important habitat, while the slow flow rate and relatively unpolluted waters of the canals has allowed the establishment of extensive benthic vegetation communities, including the protected Opposite-leaved Pondweed, Glutinous snail, and coarse fish species, including Pike, Rudd, Bream and Tench.”