While the stated purpose of this website is to promote the natural heritage resource values of the South Wexford Coast, it focuses mainly on the area’s Natura 2000 sites.

Natura 2000 is the network of some 27,000 nature conservation sites found throughout the territories of the 27 member states of the European Union (EU). On-going development of the network is the centrepiece of EU policy with regard to the conservation of nature and biodiversity. All of the sites can be accessed on the European Environment Agency’s Natura 2000 Network Viewer at http://natura2000.eea.europa.eu/.

Heritage is that which is inherited from past generations, maintained by present generations, and bestowed to future generations.

Natural heritage comprises two main kinds: the living and the non-living.

The living heritage includes the biodiversity of the coastal strip, its plants, animals, fungi and other life forms, the communities and ecosystems that these life forms create, the habitats that support them and/or that they comprise or make, and the protected areas that evidence their value to society and the common good.

The non-living resources include the rocky foundation of the coastline, its geological structures and geomorphological features, the legacy of past ice ages, water, air, soil, landscape, etc.

Some of these non-living resources are featured in separate pages below.