Leaders for Nature Programme set to deliver partnerships for change 

31 Jul 2025

The programme, launched by the Minister of State for Nature, Heritage and Biodiversity Christopher O’Sullivan TD will bring together emerging leaders who share ambition to restore and regenerate nature.
The Leaders for Nature Programme has been established by Common Purpose, Native Events and Leave No Trace Ireland.

The key aim of the Leader for Nature Programme is to create nature-based solutions to deliver on what is required to address the biodiversity crisis as set out by the Citizens Assembly on Biodiversity Loss.

Its objective is to ensure that every citizen, community, business, local authority, semi-state and state agency has an awareness of biodiversity and its importance, and of the implications of its loss, while also understanding how they can act to address the biodiversity emergency as part of a renewed effort to “act for nature”.

Announcing the Leader for Nature Programme, Minister of State for Nature, Heritage and Biodiversity Christopher O’Sullivan T.D. said  

“We are facing urgent challenges, from biodiversity loss to climate change, and nature restoration has never been more critical.”

“Earlier this year the Forum on Nature Restoration met in the first step in an extensive consultation process to co-create a National Nature Restoration Plan that is ambitious, achievable and inclusive, delivering benefits for nature, our communities and our quality of life.”

“The Leaders for Nature Programme we are launching today will support and amplify the work of the Nature Leaders Forum in shaping the development of the National Nature Restorative Plan, ensuring that every segment of Irish society, from individual citizens to state agencies, gains a deeper awareness of biodiversity and how we can collectively address the biodiversity emergency and act for nature.”

Róisín Wood, CEO of the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland said:  

“The Leaders for Nature Programme is taking an all-island approach to the challenges our environment, habitats, biodiversity and nature are facing. Northern Ireland is currently ranked as the 12th worst-performing country globally for biodiversity loss out of 240 countries with the Republic of Ireland only one place above us at 13th.

“No single sector or organisation has the capacity on its own to reverse this. We must see innovative, partnership-based approaches to these vital issues with the private, public and community and voluntary sector coming together to meet this crisis head on.

“The Leadership for Nature programme aims to provide the space for these cross sectoral relationships and ideas to be brought together and built upon.”

Maura Kiely, Chief Executive Officer, Leave No Trace Ireland said: 

“It is so vital that on an all-island basis that we lose no more time in our responses… we come together, and with urgency, to collectively tackle the challenges of rapidly declining biodiversity. The Leaders for Nature programme will be a key element in helping us reach this goal.”

Megan Best, Chief Executive Officer, Native Events said:  

“Working with nature teaches us that everything is connected. Species, habitats, communities, and ecosystems – all continuously interacting to create the whole. Common Purpose Leadership programmes help us to understand how to reach across the boundaries that we have created – across sectors and disciplines – to collaborate, to find new connections and to work together. This programme will create the Leaders for Nature that we so urgently need.”

To find out more or to register for the programme click the link below.

https://bit.ly/LeadersforNature