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InvestigatesCoastal ErosionA SMALL CO KERRY community group which saved its main road from being lost to the sea has urged the State to speed up decarbonisation.
Maharees Conservation Association (MCA) has warned that unless the government prioritises efforts to switch to a low carbon economy in line with climate action targets, vulnerable coastal areas are in danger of being wiped out.
“We can shift the chairs around as much as we want, we can have awareness days, but unless the State is investing in helping people to switch to non-fossil fuel powered cars and homes we are in big trouble,” Martha Farrell, MCA co-director, said.
“With a metre sea level rise locked in and the UN saying we’re headed for three degrees of warming, that metre isn’t going to stay a metre.
“Unless we have a transition to a low carbon economy… places like Maharees and Portrane have no hope.”
The group’s warning comes just days after The Journal Investigates revealed how an internal government report states the number of homes under threat from coastal erosion has risen by 173% in just five years.
The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications document also stated that the number of roads currently under threat from being lost to the sea has more than doubled between 2017 and 2022.
Set up seven years ago by a small group of locals, MCA has been able to turn the tide on escalating erosion in the area by implementing nature-based solutions and encouraging regenerative tourism.
Between 2015 and 2016, the Dingle-Peninsula community saw its main coastal road blocked 17 times by drifting sand, escalating fears the road would soon be completely lost to the sea.
With the help of University of Galway dune scientist Eugene Farrell, volunteers planted marram grass and installed hundreds of metres of chestnut fencing to protect sand dunes.
Alongside other measures, such as restricting parking and access to sand dunes, the group’s efforts have slowed down shoreline erosion and led to the regeneration of critical natural defences.
“I would say that our road would definitely be gone at this stage if we didn’t stop what was happening,” Aidan O’Connor, MCA co-director, told The Journal Investigates.
“There’s some parts of the dunes that have grown 15 feet or more in the last six or seven years.”
Although the group’s intervention has slowed down erosion, it can’t stop it.
State support is needed to sustain such community-led climate action, the group said, and the decarbonisation of the country is vital.
“What we’re doing is keeping the community in as good a quality of life as we can, for as long as we can,” Farrell said.
We still have erosion, so any big storms, it will still take it out.
“It’s just we’re not seeing the devastation caused by the combined impacts of erosion and anthropogenic damage, which would be the people walking up and down the dune, weakening it. So we’ve taken that out of it.”
Leaving the dunes to their “own devices” in the summertime by erecting protective fences means that when winter arrives, erosion still happens but the area eventually recovers, Farrell said.
“The difference is night and day,” the MCA co-director explained.
“The sand dunes are really recovered, vegetated and stronger. You have a visiting community that really is supportive of us, because they understand now, but they probably didn’t at the start.
“We were fencing off areas of the dunes that were freely open to the public for years and they had that history of parking on a sand dune and enjoying it. Suddenly, that was taken away from them.”
Despite some feeling the group’s efforts were inconvenient and “futile”, within just one year the area visibly started to recover.
“We had a drone shot of the recovery, and you couldn’t argue with it,” said Farrell. “And I think that won us a lot of supporters.”
The group’s work has been held up as an example of how communities can work together to tackle climate change and its devastating local impact.
However, MCA says more government funding is needed to support this vital work.
Earlier this year, the group launched Neart na Machairí, a creative climate action project aimed at promoting coastal resilience.
Funded by Creative Ireland, the project is a partnership between MCA, the Dingle Hub and three embedded artists, Emer Fallon, Silke Michels and Zoe Uí Fhaoláin Green.
Through art, the project explores questions of long-range climate change adaptation, challenges, opportunities and how the community can ultimately become resilient.
“It’s difficult because it relies on volunteerism,” Zoe Rush, Neart na Machairí project designer, said.
“I think this is a huge thing that the State could be looking into and really trusting communities to be able to lead community action and climate action.”
Farrell said the innovative project has furthered the efforts of MCA by engaging the community in creative activities and fostering a deeper appreciation for the local environment.
“At the end of the day, all we have is each other as a community, and the project has brought us together,” she said.
Our investigation revealed that the number of homes at risk of falling into sea has jumped by 173% in five years. Read this now >>
Reporter: Patricia Devlin • Editor: Maria Delaney • Social Media: Sadbh Cox
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