- COMMUNITY - NATURE - SCIENCE -

Green Restoration

IRELAND

Working to Innovate Solutions​

Supporting community development through actions that restore our natural heritage and so help fight climate change and restore biodiversity and ecosystem services to our landscape

The Facts

Billion Tonnes of Carbon
0

Amount of carbon estimated to be stored in Irish peatlands which can be locked in through appropriate restoration work

Favorable State
0 %

The percentage of Ireland’s protected areas considered to be in a Favorable state

High Water Quality Status
0 %

Length of Irish waterways remaining with High (Q5) water quality status

Our Projects

The Mayo Bogs Project

GRI Cooperative is restoring four raised and blanket bogs in County Mayo which will be used as exemplar sites for peatland community engagement and community and landowner-led restoration. GRI is working to help the owners restore these valuable habitats and find new ‘post-harvest’ uses and incomes

The Farm Carbon EIP

GRI Cooperative has been selected under the European Innovation Partnerships Initiative (EIP) and is being funded under Ireland’s Rural Development Programme 2014-2021. In the catchments of the Camcor, Little Brosna and Silver Rivers, we are working with landowners of farmed peatlands to create a results-based, agri-environmental scheme that rewards them for improving the environmental services of their farms by regenerating their farmed peatlands

Who We Are​

Green Restoration Ireland Cooperative Society Ltd was established in 2019 and is working to innovate solutions to reverse the ecological degradation of the Irish landscape and the erosion of rural communities.

We believe that properly funded ecological restoration will provide many of the solutions to community regeneration. We take direct action to support rural development through actions that restore our natural heritage and so help fight climate change and restore biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Our Core Cooperative Values

GRI is a member of the Irish Cooperative Organisation Society (ICOS) and adheres to cooperative rules. The co-operative principles are seven in number derive from the principles established by the Rochdale Pioneers:

Cooperatives are voluntary organisations, open to all persons able to use their services and willing to accept the responsibilities of membership, without gender, social, class, racial, political or religious discrimination

Cooperatives are democratic organisations controlled by their members, who actively participate in setting their policies and making decisions. Elected Board representatives are accountable to the membership. Primary cooperative members have equal voting rights (one member, one vote

Members contribute equitably to, and democratically control, the ‘capital’ of their cooperative. At least part of that capital is usually the common property of the cooperative

Cooperatives are autonomous, self-help organisations controlled by their members. If they enter into agreements with other organisations, including governments, or raise capital from external sources, they do so on terms that ensure democratic control by their members and maintain their cooperative autonomy

Cooperatives provide education and training for their members, elected representatives, managers, and employees so they can contribute effectively to the development of their co-operatives. They inform the general public – particularly young people and opinion leaders – about the nature and benefits of co-operation

Cooperatives serve their members most effectively and strengthen the cooperative movement by working together through local, national, regional and international structures to create social solidarity and economic independence

Cooperatives work for the sustainable development of their communities through policies approved by their members

Mission Statement and Vision

We are concerned by the the ongoing decline of rural Irish communities and the state of the world’s environment and its current trajectory and in particular, the growing possibility of runaway climate change and the catastrophic loss of biodiversity.
We are of the opinion that our fellow citizens share these concerns as well as a love of our natural heritage but have few means of addressing them.

Our Excellent Team

We are business people, citizens, community activists, ecologists, farmers, professionals and scientists united in the common goal of preparing the way for a sustainable future in an economically and ecologically revitalised Ireland.

Partnerships and Multi-stakeholder Cooperative

We employ a community-based approach where we engage with the local community and other relevant stakeholders and interested parties including businesses, cooperatives, county councils, NGOs, social enterprises etc. to create local groups to work with us to maximise the potential for sites as community resources for eco-tourism, environmental education, recreation and other selected uses.

We have partnerships and associations with Moy Rivers Trust, North Pennines AONB, Verra (LandScale), Mayo Environmental Network, other cooperatives and are a member of Mayo PPN.

Partners and Supporting organizations