About us

We are a group of organisations and individuals from academia and public, private and NGO sectors interested in the development and application of the natural capital agenda in Ireland. We are structured as a non-profit Company Limited by Guarantee, governed by a Board, led by a Steering Committee and administered by a Secretariat.

VISION

Our vision is for an Ireland in which natural capital and ecosystem goods and services are valued, protected and restored.

MISSION

Our mission is to value, protect and restore Ireland’s natural capital and ecosystem services. We will do this by supporting the adoption of natural capital concepts in public policy and corporate strategy, promoting informed public and private sector decision-making, and assisting in the establishment of a national natural capital accounting standard.

See a logo with a different acorn on it, and reference to the Irish Forum on Natural Capital?

That's still us! We rebranded to Natural Capital Ireland in 2021.

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We welcome representatives from across public, private, NGO, academic and independent sectors, who are welcome to stand for the Steering Committee, support our Policy Working Group, and contribute guest blogs or other ideas and suggestions.

Board of Directors

Names arranged in alphabetical order.

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Chair of Board of Directors: Alan Costello

Director at Resolve Partners

Alan is a strategy and innovation specialist, focusing on supporting startups to scale globally and corporates to develop their innovation through startup-style processes. Deeply involved in the venture capital sector, including as a Venture Investment Leader with NDRC, Alan is currently Director at Resolve Partners. He has a strong background in sustainability and cleantech including energy generation, water utility and domestic energy optimisation. Alan has worked with national and international agencies for research and enterprise across >20 countries after a corporate career in life sciences.

Director: Darragh Gaffney

Research & Innovation Services Manager, IRDG

Darragh works for the Industry Research & Development Group (IRDG), an innovation network in Ireland. Darragh spends a considerable amount of his time with members on a 1-to-1 basis, working through needs and interests across diverse industry sectors, supporting individual members to achieve their Research & Innovation goals. Darragh also heads up IRDG’s sustainability-focussed activities, including a Sustainability Leaders Group and practical implementation workshops. Darragh has many years’ experience in R&D activities, previously acting in R&D Manager and Consultancy roles, where he successfully implemented circular bioeconomy-based business models as well as securing significant financial support from Horizon 2020.

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Director: Charlie Coakley (Board Representative on NCI Steering Committee)

Environmental Scientist, Úisce Éireann (Irish Water)

Charlie is an environmental scientist with over twenty years' experience in a number of areas including biodiversity, energy efficiency and water management. He has led his teams to win numerous awards including SEAI, Bord Bia and IBEC accolades. Charlie hopes to help drive a natural capital approach, both nationally, and through leading by example within Irish Water, which has a large portfolio of assets nationwide and can make a significant contribution to the natural capital approach.

Director: Holly Pettingale

Senior Director, Sustainability and ESG, FTI Consulting

Holly is an ESG and sustainability strategy specialist, working with companies to develop and implement sustainability strategies which drive meaningful sustainability impact. Currently a Senior Director at FTI Consulting, she advises businesses across sectors including food and agriculture, pharmaceuticals, technology, and finance. Holly is passionate about the role nature can play in sustainable development, and the importance of embedding nature within corporate strategy and development. With a background in environmental and social responsibility, Holly previously worked at Barry Callebaut, the world’s largest cocoa trader and chocolate manufacturer, where she led initiatives on supply chain decarbonisation, sustainable sourcing and child labour. Prior to that, she worked on J. Sainsbury’s Plc’s supply chain emissions reduction programme.

Director: Jonathan Cooper

Principal at Cooper Resilience Consulting

Jonathan is an environmental consultant, with experience of directing projects with the World Bank, European Investment Bank and UNDP across Europe. He led a medium sized business in Ireland for 10 years, implementing river restoration schemes, applying nature-based solutions in flood risk, climate adaptation and development projects, inputting to spatial planning and green infrastructure strategies and balancing water resources between the natural environment and increasing demand. At the heart of that work was the need to value nature and Jonathan is passionate about developing robust methods that allows more sustainable decisions to be made in the planning of our infrastructure needs. Jonathan is Chartered Director and is currently a non-executive director with a water engineering consultancy in Romania, finance director for a social inclusion and drugs prevention charity in Limerick and executive coach to a number of enterprises and individuals. He also runs his own environmental consultancy focused on climate adaptation and river restoration.

Director: Dr Jimmy O'Keeffe (Board Representative on NCI Steering Committee)

Dublin City University

Jimmy is a hydrologist and lecturer in environmental systems at DCU where he co-developed Ireland's first undergraduate course in Climate and Environmental Sustainability. He has over 14 years’ experience working on natural capital and ecosystem services in Ireland, UK and South Asia, with farmers, developers, regulatory authorities and governments, and helped organise Ireland's Children and Young People’s Assembly on Biodiversity Loss. Jimmy uses interdisciplinary approaches, particularly stakeholder engagement and systems modelling to improve our understanding of the links and feedbacks between humans and the natural environment. He believes in expanding natural capital and ecosystem services from the academic-policy sphere to a more familiar, accessible and useful resource as key to societal and natural environment sustainability. Jimmy lead the Science Foundation of Ireland-funded project VniC-Health (Valuing Natural Capital in Communities for Health) which applies the approach to evaluate benefits of green spaces in an urban setting. He will also be leading an upcoming project, working with farmers to identify and evaluate natural capital and ecosystem services on Irish farms.

Our Secretariat

Secretariat & Research Team

Names arranged by type of role.

Deirdre Lane

Executive Coordinator

Deirdre is a highly qualified and experienced financial professional in global markets. Building on her extensive career establishing new commodity markets, she continues to broker knowledge transfers and deliver transparency with grass-top and grass-roots thinkers. Weaving multidisciplinary regenerative thinking in circular bioeconomies, Deirdre works with empowering stakeholders and widely sharing eco and energy insights. Her wealth of experience with global and local organisations seeking greener, impactful actions informs her role on a number of regenerative working groups. With actions to promote regenerative, inclusive and affordable sustainable development, Deirdre has been working creatively to identify meaningful disruptive climate change solutions, from farm to fashion. ShamrockSpring founder Deirdre is also an ambassador for the Circular Economy Institute and positive impact community.

Karl Byrne

Researcher, Project & Strategy Support

Karl is a designer and researcher in sustainable finance, nature restoration, and nature data. He holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Design Thinking for Sustainability from UCD, MSc in Climate Change: Policy, Media & Society from DCU, and MSc in Sustainable Financial Technology & Innovation from Maynooth University. Karl has co-founded and supported the development of several tech startups and community initiatives which bring people together and outdoors, such as Off The Beaten. He is also passionate about good design being fundamental in creating flows, interactions, and systems that put people at the heart of the experience. In this context, Karl became a Design Sprint Facilitator with The Ladder and supported product design and user experience at Full Health Medical. His work is complemented by additional qualifications in this area, including a Postgraduate Diploma in Design Thinking for Sustainability from UCD and a Professional Diploma in UX Design.

Our Steering Committee

Steering Committee

Names arranged in alphabetical order.

Thomas Ball

Director of Nature and Land Use, KPMG Ireland’s Sustainable Futures

Thomas is a scientist by training with a 20+ year career spanning corporate sustainability strategy, communications, policy and advocacy. Prior to joining KPMG, he was Head of Business Advocacy at WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) where he led a technical team working with global financial institutions and real economy businesses to drive the transition to a net zero and nature positive economy. Alongside this, he was a technical member of the UK Government’s Transition Plan Taskforce. Thomas previously ran an award-winning documentary-making business, working with clients such as The Guardian and National Geographic. He is co-founder of Our Yard, a grassroots social enterprise in London. He is also on the impact board for the Go Nature Positive initiative and is a strategic advisor for The Bioregional Weaving Lab South East Ireland.

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Dr Noreen Byrne

Co-director MSc Sustainable Development, Agrifood & Co-operatives, University College Cork

Noreen is a senior lecturer at Cork University University Business School, Director of the Centre for Co-operative Studies, UCC and Co-director of the award-wining MSc Sustainable Development, Agri-food and Co-operatives. Noreen has a keen interest in the role of landscape and place as a communications, educational and practical medium for transitioning to a sustainable and regenerative society. She has a particular interest in how a natural capital lens could facilitate and develop the collaborative and regenerative-enabling capability of organisations and communities within a landscape. A member of the NCI steering committee since 2022, Noreen is a PI on the EPA-funded (2024-2028) DStream (Dairy Sustainability through Regenerative Experimentation and Mindsets) which explores enablers of regenerative experimentation on dairy farms. She is also a Co-PI of the Swoboda-funded 'Transitioning to environmental sustainability and regeneration: the role of credit unions' which explores the regenerative enabling capability of credit unions as potential embedded intermediaries within place. Noreen is also a member of the AKIS CAP Network Co-ordination Group (2023- 2025).

Malachy Campbell

Northern Ireland Environment Link

Malachy has an MSc in Biological Sciences from Ulster University and is the Senior Policy Officer at Northern Ireland Environment Link (NIEL), the umbrella body for the environment sector in NI. In 2020, Malachy brought a range of organisations together to form the Climate Coalition NI (CCNI) and worked with a group of cross party politicians, legal experts and academics to introduce the first draft climate change legislation to the NI Assembly which ultimately led to the passing of the Climate Change (Northern Ireland) Act 2022. In 2023, CCNI was awarded the RSPB medal for this work, also the subject of the 2024 FoE documentary “Act Now”. Previously, with WWF Northern Ireland, Malachy represented all UK environmental NGOs in the negotiations between the European Commission and UK Government on the designation of Special Areas of Conservation (SACs), 2002-2003, which resulted in the designation of more than 260 additional SACs across the UK, the number more than doubling in NI. Malachy spent six years on the Council for Nature Conservation and the Countryside (CNCC), the statutory advisory body on nature conservation.

Ally Couchman

Economics for the Environment Consultancy (Ireland)

Ally works in the natural capital branch of London-based Environmental Economics Consultancy, eftec (Economics for the Environment), now in Ireland, and so has practical experience of applying the natural capital approach to a range of sectors of varying scales and objectives, in different countries. Ally has a farming background and has always had a deep love of the environment. As a committee member of the Drummin Bog Project, she has direct experience of some of the challenges faced while trying to conserve and restore our natural landscape. Through her work, she has seen the importance of integrating natural capital into decision-making but also the challenges and limitations of the approach. She hopes to contribute directly to the expansion and development of natural capital concepts in Ireland.

Ashling Cronin

COO & Ecologist, Scott Cawley Ltd

Ashling has over 15 years of experience in ecological/environmental assessment and environmental management across both the private and public sector. She has a skillset in business and people management, development and leadership. She also has a keen interest in environmental law and policy, and how this shapes the work of the practitioners as well as the future for our society. She is a subject matter expert in ecology, now managing the operational side of a company to develop and execute strategies to ensure that company is working towards its vision. This involves supporting a team of ecologists to deliver a nature--positive agenda in a ‘boots on the ground’ capacity. Her aim is to help drive and deliver the natural capital agenda at a strategic and national level.

Dr Catherine Farrell

Ecologist, CIEEM, Assistant Professor at Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin, ReFarm & Incase Project

Catherine is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Natural Sciences and Assitant Professor in the Business School at Trinity College Dublin. A pioneer of nature restoration & research in Ireland and internationally, Catherine piloted the UN SEEA-Ecosystem Accounting framework at catchment scale in Ireland via the EPA-funded INCASE project. With Bord na Mona (2001-2019), she worked to develop peatland restoration and rehabilitation, led LIFE on Machair (2022-2024) with Ireland's unique species-rich coastal grassland habitats, and as part of BiOrbic, National Bioeconomy Research Centre, focuses on developing mechanisms to structure, finance, monitor and communicate direct impacts and broader societal benefits of nature restoration. A founding member of NCI, Catherine works with community and business to build connections from local/SME to national/corporate scales, while recognising the integral need for strong and functional governance systems. She is Director of Hometree woodland charity and involved with Community Wetlands Forum in an advisory capacity. She is Research Lead on the ReFarm project, piloting a structure to fund farm-based nature-positive actions, with farmers, businesses, investors and researchers.

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Dr Maria Fitzpatrick

Consulting with Nature

Maria has a PhD in Freshwater Ecology, looking at Irish headwater streams and worked as an Environmental Consultant before moving to London to work at Queen Mary University of London and then on to the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew to build and head up the Research Funding Services for Kew Science. Maria has a track record of significantly increasing research funding, implementing efficient grant management systems, and developing innovative programmes to support researchers. She is Circular Economy trained (Circular Economy Institute) with a CSRD professional qualification from the CSRD Institute and Business Development Manager at Business For Biodiversity Ireland. With a blend of scientific expertise, project and relationship management skills, and a keen understanding of the environmental challenges our world is facing, she is skilled at building compelling cases for change and funding and encouraging collaborative, inclusive efforts. She is passionate about driving change for a nature-positive and economically sustainable future. Her career reflects a deep commitment to scientific research and innovation, particularly in biodiversity and water protection.

Dr Mark Kearney

Assistant Agricultural Inspector, DAFM

Mark graduated with a degree in Agri-Environmental Science from University College Dublin (UCD) in 2019. He continued his academic studies by completing a Ph.D. through the collaborative Walsh Scholarship programme between UCD and Teagasc Grange. Mark developed the Grange Dairy Beef Systems model to evaluate dairy-beef production systems from bioeconomic, environmental, and feed-food competition perspective, providing valuable insights into improving the sustainability and efficiency of the sector. In 2024, Mark joined the Nature & Land Use Division of the Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (DAFM) as an Assistant Agricultural Inspector. In this position, he engages with industry and other relevant stakeholders to ensure land use strategies are effective and compliant with EU and national Land Use, Land-use Change & Forestry (LULUCF) policies. Mark also advises on and contributes to the Land Use Review which looks to ensure that optimal land use options inform all relevant government decisions. Mark is involved in farming part-time with his father and two brothers on their mixed beef, sheep, and tillage farm in Co Westmeath.

Deirdre Lynn

Assistant Director, Scientific Advice and Research Directorate, National Parks & Wildlife Service

Deirdre manages the following areas in the Scientific Advice and Research Directorate of the NPWS: Uplands and Coastal habitats, Scientific Monitoring and Reporting with a focus on condition assessment and restoration. She is also involved in policy formulation, review and implementation, in particular Ireland's National Biodiversity Action Plan. She is a national focal point for the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. Her work at NPWS has facilitated seed funding for Business for Biodiversity Ireland and Peatland Finance Ireland. She has worked closely with Community Foundation Ireland in the ongoing support of their Biodiversity Grant fund. She mobilised support for the All Island Climate and Biodiversity Research Network to ensure we are progressing policy relevant research. Her team has been involved with BiodivERsA+ including accessing funds for biodiversity monitoring. Deirdre is an advocate for ensuring all voices are heard and was involved in the organisation of both National Biodiversity Conferences and also involved with ongoing support for the Biodiversity Forum and drafting the Government response to the Citizens' Assembly and the Children’s and Young People’s Assembly on Biodiversity Loss.

Ashley Glover

Rewild Wicklow

Ashley has a degree in law from Trinity College Dublin and a masters in economics from University College Dublin. He is Chair of Researchandmarkets.com and has 30 years of experience in information services businesses. He has many years of governance and hands-on experience with eNGOs including Rewild Wicklow, Irish Deer Commission, East Wicklow Rivers Trust, Righttoknow. Ashley is interested in how the natural capital approach could be applied to nature restoration on state/semi-state lands (which is mainly where the eNGOs he is involved with are engaged) including peatland rewetting, deer management, native woodland restoration and riparian barrier removal.

Owen Murphy

Breeding Waders EIP

Owen is a passionate conservationist, with in-depth knowledge of the factors driving biodiversity loss in Ireland and climate change internationally. Given his current role as Senior Project Manager with the Breeding Waders EIP, he is well placed to assess shortfalls in current policy and funding models. EIPs are collaborative by nature, so he is attuned to the 'on-the-ground' issues as well as the policy and research briefs that accompany modern conservation. He is an experienced communicator, who fundamentally believe that biodiversity loss in Ireland is the biggest single crisis facing our nation. Many factors influence this and many stakeholders are involved, therefore it is vital all funding streams are fully utilised to drive change.

Dr Martha O'Hagan

Associate Professor of Finance, Trinity College Dublin

Martha is engaged in teaching and research in the area of Sustainable Finance, as an Associate Professor of Finance in Trinity College Dublin, and the Director of Undergraduate Teaching and Learning. She holds a BA in Economics, an MSc in Finance and a PhD in International Finance from Trinity College.Having previously worked in banking, she is deeply invested in exploring the role that the financial sector can play in redirecting capital flows towards sustainable economic activity, providing incentives that incorporate the social and environmental value of economic activity and ensuring that externalities are reflected in the true value of any asset. She is interested in how, by developing natural capital accounting, we can work towards correctly valuing our natural assets in Ireland in order to protect those assets, and incorporate that value into the financial sector. She is part of the ReFarm project to deliver nature-positive actions on farms through a mechanism of private sector funding.

Dr Hannah O'Kelly

Local Biodiversity Officer

Hannah is a conservation scientist and advocate for Nature. She spent much of the last two decades in Southeast Asia, developing ecological monitoring systems, primarily for the Wildlife Conservation Society, and completed a PhD with Imperial College London and the Zoological Society of London. Her research has been interdisciplinary but with a strong quantitative basis, investigating the relationships between illegal hunting, conservation interventions and target populations. In recent years, she co-founded a not-for-profit company, established with the objective of enabling more effective approaches to protected area management, including conservation concessions. She has also worked as a consultant on large-scale government-to-government development projects, for which she designed impact evaluation measures. Her experience, therefore, spans multi-stakeholder engagement, fostering collaboration among NGOs, government agencies, and research institutions. On her return to her native Co Wicklow, she joined a growing network of Local Authority Biodiversity Officers. Through this Heritage Council-supported programme, she is tasked with transposing national and international policy and legislation into local action. Hannah is involved in a range of civil society organisations, including Wicklow Uplands Council.

Tadhg O'Mahony

Environmental Protection Agency

Tadhg graduated in Plant Science from University College Cork in 1984. He worked with National Parks & Wildlife Services on national surveys in 1984/85. Following a spell in outdoor education including field studies, Tadhg pursued postgraduate studies in Environmental Technology specialising in Water Management at Imperial College. He subsequently spent 10 years in environmental consultancy in the UK and Ireland in the areas of EIA and EcIA. Tadhg joined the Environmental Protection Agency in 1997 and, since 2003, has headed up the Strategic Environmental Assessment Unit in the Office of Evidence and Assessment. Advocating for the integration of environmental considerations in sectoral plans, programmes and strategies, he is also part of the team involved in the production of the EPA’s State of Environment Report. A visiting lecturer at Oxford Brookes University and NUIG post graduate courses, Tadhg has a particular interest in freshwater and marine ecology, and is a keen photographer and avid collector and reader of natural history publications.

Dr Noeleen Smyth

University College Dublin

Noeleen is an Assistant Professor in Conservation & Environmental Horticulture at UCD. She is a Botanist and Chartered Horticulturalist, with qualifications from Teagasc (College of Amenity Horticulture, Glasnevin), the Royal Horticultural Society (UK) and Trinity College Dublin. She obtained her PhD from TCD on Forest Restoration & Invasive species control in the South Pacific. She has held various conservation policy and environmental roles in the UK & Ireland and worked at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew as Head of the UK CITES Scientific Authority. She was recently elected as EU representative on the International CITES Plants Committee. She acts as CITES Scientific Authority for Ireland and a member and former chair of the EU Scientific Review Group (EU SRG) whose mission is to ensure global sustainable trade in wild rare species. She previously a worked as a conservation botanist with the OPW at the National Botanic Gardens and contributed to the OPW Biodiversity plan and working group.

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Matthew Hornsby

Department of Climate, Energy and Environment

Matthew is Assistant Principal officer in the Department of Climate, Energy and Environment with responsibility for agricultural emissions, carbon removals and soils policy. He also acts as Irish national point of contact on the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. He holds an MSc in environmental policy from UCD, and has experience working in several government departments and agencies in Ireland and the UK, and has worked on diverse policy areas including international trade agreements, older persons’ care and homelessness, as well as the environment.

Dr Eliot Taylor

Atkins Réalis

With 30+ years of senior level management of teams, individuals, projects, programmes and processes, Eliot has extensive technical experience in: assessment of environmental and ecological issues and their remediation, climate change adaptation, water and natural resources management, especially in integrated and transboundary water resources management, ecological and environment and social impact assessment, environmental flow assessment, aquatic ecosystem health and protected site planning and management. With Board Membership of 13 years on the Board of Wetlands International and, currently, the International Institute for Environment and Development Europe, Eliot's goal is to make a significant contribution to management and effective delivery of positively impactful social and environmental initiatives, of benefit at local, national and global level - and in doing so to make a positive contribution to reduce human society’s adverse impacts on the planet and to protect, enhance and manage biodiversity.

Our Steering Committee members operate under our Terms of Reference, which outline roles & responsibilities.

Terms of reference

Strategy

Natural Capital Ireland's Strategy

Click the image below to download our Strategic Report for 2021-2023. It contains our key strategic themes, objectives and plans...updated strategy coming soon.

Natural Capital Ireland's Strategic Plan for 2021-2023

Annual Reports

Download our Annual Reports and minutes from our Annual General Meetings below. Natural Capital Ireland incorporated as a Company Limited by Guarantee in 2019 as part of our goal to build upon our governance framework. Reports are available from this point on.

Financial Statements 2024

Financial Statements 2023

Our Funders

Natural Capital Ireland is currently supported by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, under the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Check out our Annual Reports above for more specifics.

In the past, we have received funding from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications.

We are grateful to all our funders who have enabled us to grow from a four-person initiative in 2014 to a nationwide network today. We continue to work closely with all those who support the natural capital agenda in Ireland.

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