Aviva Ireland has pledged €5m in funding to the Nature Trust, a not-for-profit company backed by Coillte and Forestry Partners, to help accelerate its native afforestation project.

Aviva said the funding, the largest the Nature Trust has received to date, will result in the planting of c.1.2 million native tree saplings, creating almost 1,000 acres of new native woodlands across a number of sites throughout Ireland.

The planting season for the new woodlands will begin this winter and continue over the coming years.

The woodlands will be made up of a mix of native trees such as oak, birch, holly, alder, rowan, hawthorn, guelder rose, blackthorn and hazel.

Ireland has currently one of the lowest levels of tree cover in all of Europe, with 11.6% forest cover but under 2% of the country’s land under native woodland.

In Association with

Declan O’Rourke, CEO, Aviva Insurance Ireland, commented: “Sustainability is of strategic importance to us as a business. Climate change is a systemic risk impacting society, businesses, our business and our customers. 

“No single company can tackle climate change alone and so we are looking to work in partnership with others.  Funding afforestation is one of the many ways that we will positively impact communities and provide environmental and recreational benefits to the public.

“There are 1.2 million families in Ireland, the same amount of trees that this project will yield, so it’s wonderful to think that our children and grandchildren will be able to enjoy these woodlands in the future.”

Ciarán Fallon, managing director of the Nature Trust, said Aviva’s commitment is a significant step forward in the trusts’ mission to increase the level of native woodland cover in Ireland on a large scale.

Photo (l-r): Ciaran Fallon, Virginia Lawlor of Aviva Life & Pensions, and Declan O’Rourke. (Pic: Naoise Culhane)