WATCH: University College Cork creates video of Clara bog for World Wetlands Day

University College Cork (UCC) has released a beautiful video of Clara Bog to mark World Wetlands Day today (Thursday) which seeks to raise awareness about wetlands to reverse their rapid loss and encourage actions to conserve and restore them.

The video shows how UCC is working alongside the community in Clara to protect and promote the environmental and cultural values of peatlands for future generations. Irish peatlands preserve a unique archaeological record, such as bog bodies and hundreds of prehistoric trackways, many of which have been lost through peat extraction.

Dr Benjamin Gearey UCC Department of Archaeology said:

"Almost every area of bogland in Ireland and across Europe has been damaged, in one way or another by drainage or peat cutting. Clara also has a very long history like most bogs, it starts growing, perhaps, around about eleven and a half thousand years ago.

"Around one fifth of the land area of Ireland is peatland, large swathes of which have been damaged by centuries of drainage and extraction. On World Wetlands Day, we celebrate the work of local community groups who are striving to reverse this trend, and to restore the ecological and cultural functions of peatlands."

Dr Gearey concluded: "Peatland restoration is gathering pace, I think the future is brighter. Peat is better off left in the ground."

Brian Sheridan, Clara Heritage Society, said: “Clara Bog is probably the most famous bog in Ireland or in Europe for that matter."

Bernie Henry, Clara Heritage Society, added: “In terms of the industrial aspect of it here in Clara and in the Midlands it was used predominantly to provide turf and heat for the people."

Globally; peatlands store two to three times more carbon than the world's woodlands combined and are vital for climate change mitigation. The biodiversity of wetlands in Ireland has been estimated to be worth €385 million per year to the Irish economy.

Wetlands including bogs, saltmarshes, swamps and wet woodlands, have been destroyed and damaged by millennia of human activity and are further threatened by climate change.

This video was part funded by the Irish Research Council's COALESCE scheme.