€2m raised for native woodland creation via new Nature Woodland Certificate
August 16, 2021
After over a year of working closely with Coillte Nature, Bank of Ireland and KPMG, we are proud to launch an innovative new financial product that will enable us to fund the large-scale creation of new native woodlands across Ireland.
The first Nature Woodland Certificate fund of €2m was fully subscribed by a single funder – AXA Ireland – and will enable us to plant 200 hectares (500 acres) of new native woodland this year – approximately 600,000 trees. We’re excited to work with AXA on this not-for-profit project, which is the first of its kind globally.
Thank you to Minister of State, Pippa Hackett for joining us for the launch, alongside Coillte CEO, Imelda Hurley and AXA Customer & Marketing Director, Antoinette McDonald.
Watch this space as we prepare to launch additional funding rounds using this model, and thank you to all the partners who have already contacted us about participating in subsequent funds – we have had a huge amount of interest expressed already, and believe this initiative will directly enable us to achieve our target of creating new native woodland on 1% of the land area of Ireland over the next 12 years.
We’ll be sharing photos of the planting, and details of all the sites around Ireland which are being planted as part of this project, and others as they get underway.