Cover Story

Radical rewilders: Meet the pioneers working to bring rainforests and wolves back to our landscape

With native vegetation down to just 1 per cent of land cover and no financial incentive to tackle the issue, our ecosystems are on life support – but Ireland’s rewilding rebels are on a mission to return land to nature, reintroduce wildlife, create nature reserves and restore bogs, writes Daniel Murray

Eoghan Daltun in the oceanic temperate rainforest on his rewilded landPicture: John Allen

In a remote forest on the Beara Peninsula in West Cork, rain is hammering its way through the thick canopy above as Eoghan Daltun makes his way through one of Ireland’s only remaining native rainforests.

“It is estimated that about 80 per cent of Ireland was covered in forest of some sort in pre-history. I would say most of that was rainforest,” Daltun tells the Business Post Magazine. “Now, this is one of the few ...