New ‘COP for schools’ to bring nature back to school grounds in Mayo

Education leaders across Ireland are invited to make biodiversity a whole-school priority under ‘Our Dúlra Agreement’, launched by Minister of State for Nature, Heritage and Biodiversity Christopher O’Sullivan TD.

Described as a ‘COP for schools’, the agreement is modelled on pledges made at United Nations climate and biodiversity conferences. It calls on education system leaders to support schools in improving biodiversity and restoring nature on their grounds.

Organisers say biodiversity work often depends on one or two committed teachers. The agreement seeks to make it a wider responsibility for education support centres, ETBs, patron bodies, management organisations and educational trusts.

Minister O’Sullivan said the initiative could transform school grounds from areas dominated by tarmac and closely cut grass into places where children experience nature.

“When education leaders came together at Wildacres in June to shape this Agreement, I said their leadership was vital,” he said. “Ireland’s Nature Restoration Plan needs a whole-of-society response, and our schools are the soil where that restoration takes root.”

Following Minister O’Sullivan’s attendance at the UN Biodiversity Conference, COP17, in Armenia last month, he said school-based restoration was an important way to put Ireland’s international commitments into practice.

“With this Agreement, school grounds can move beyond tarmac and mown grass to places where children watch nature come back,” he said. “Making nature restoration a living reality in every school in Ireland is an important way of honouring these international commitments at home”.

The launch coincides with the World Leaders’ Summit at COP31, the UN climate conference in Antalya, Türkiye, from November 9 to 20. Ireland is preparing its first national Nature Restoration Plan under the EU Nature Restoration Law, with the final plan due in September 2027.

The Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss has recommended developing school grounds for nature education, while the Independent Advisory Committee on Nature Restoration has called for ecological literacy to be embedded across primary and post-primary education.

Research has linked greener school environments with improved learning and wellbeing. A study of more than 2,500 schoolchildren in Spain found greater gains in working memory and attention among pupils in greener schools. A Danish study of almost one million people found that children raised with the least green space had up to a 55% higher risk of developing a mental health disorder later in life.

Dr Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin of Dublin City University, who previously chaired both advisory bodies, said children needed opportunities to learn about nature and spend time in flourishing natural environments. This could benefit their health, wellbeing and educational outcomes while connecting them with food systems and the natural world, she said.

“It is hugely important to ensure [children] learn about nature and get to enjoy spending time in flourishing natural environments,” she said. “Not only is this good for their health and wellbeing, it can benefit their educational outcomes and achievement, teach them about food systems, and connect them with living things that allow us to thrive.”

Training for schools

Six Education Support Centres in Limerick, Dublin West, Cork, Donegal, Laois and Waterford are hosting Whole-School Biodiversity Train-the-Trainer days this autumn.

Mayo schools are asked to send a principal or deputy principal alongside another staff member. Each school leaves prepared to train its wider staff and begin mapping its own Dúlra plan.

The agreement emerged from the Irish Schools Sustainability Network, a community of teachers working to change the education system.

Dr Patrick Kirwan, the network’s founding director, said the initiative would help ensure every child had the opportunity to develop a connection with nature.

Education organisations in Mayo can download the agreement from the Irish Schools Sustainability Network website, bring it to their board for approval and email a signed copy to [email protected].