The Government is being urged to purchase Kerry’s scenic Conor Pass, which has been put up for sale for €10 million by its American owner.
Director of Friends of the Irish Environment Tony Lowes told Newstalk Breakfast that people did not see the value of national parks and that if the Conor Pass was purchased and allowed to regenerate "creatures would flock to it", as would tourists.
However, Mr Lowes did agree with the €10 million sale price. The problem was that comparison would be made that €10 million could be better spent on housing or the health system.
"I think the problem is that people don't see the value of a national park, the value of taking over an area like this. We put in five national parks in the last 20 years of the last century, and we haven't put in one this century. When you look at the kind of things, the advantages we get from them, it really is a bit difficult to understand.
"I think it's just that people don't realise the value of properly conserving and properly managing the land."
The Conor Pass was "absolutely magnificent" Mr Lowe, who used to live in the area, said.
If allowed to regenerate properly, "you would find that birds and creatures of all kinds would flock to it, including tourists," he added.
"I mean, this is one of the things if you look at Killarney, for instance, Killarney’s tourism is really based entirely on its national park."
He said the Conor Pass contained "all kinds of habitats" and if allowed to regenerate, "the skies would fill and the river there is going to be again full of fish, as they once were before".
"This is what we're after, and we can't do that unless we manage the land properly. If you look at it just in climate terms, if you removed sheep, you'd have less methane emissions, and you'd also have a sink because as the vegetation grows up, it absorbs greenhouse gases.
"If we have that kind of sink, that means that we have to reduce things less, so we can drive a little more and do those kinds of things a little more."
When asked about comments by local TD Michael Healy Rae that the funds would be better spent on social housing, Mr Lowes said Mr Healy Rae "perhaps" did not realise the economic value of treating land in this way.
