With climate change and sustainability top of many corporate agendas following the recent COP26 gathering in Glasgow, the Dublin-based digital agency Wolfgang Digital has just completed the purchase of 38 acres of land at Tomnafinnoge Woods in Wicklow which it will use to plant native Irish trees as part of a reforestation initiative which it started in 2017.
The initiative is being managed by Wolfgang Reforest, the not-for-profit spin out from the Irish agency. This brings the social enterprise’s total land in the area to 51 acres and since 2017 Wolfgang has contributed €300,000 from its profits to the reforestation drive. Additional fund-raising has so far brought in another €200,000.
Last year Wolfgang Digital staff launched of www.WolfgangReforest.ie as a social enterprise to encourage the public to “Gift Trees Not Things” to friends and family.
Tomnafinnoge Woods is one of Ireland’s last remaining ancient woodlands and said to be the oldest coppiced oakwoods in Europe. “In the 1980s the owners of the last vestiges of Tomnafinnoge Woods decided to clearfell the forest to sell the timber. In response, locals and activists including U2 and then Taoiseach Charlie Haughey rallied to protect the ancient woodland from being lost forever. We’re now reforesting on top of their crucial conservation efforts,”says Wolfgang Reforest Co-Founder Alan Coleman.
