Minister Malcolm Noonan said the grants will connect community groups with scientific expertise, helping them to better understand their local biodiversity.
The Government has announced €376,000 in a fresh round of grants for 78 community biodiversity plans across Ireland.
These plans range from protecting the red-listed Corkcrake bird species on the Aran Islands, Sand Martins in the midlands and an 11-acre nature reserve on the Nore river at Thomastown, Kilkenny, to restore the natural environment on the island over the next five to 10 years.
The grants announced today (4 March) are the latest in a joint Biodiversity Fund, which is an initiative of the Community Foundation Ireland (CFI) and the National Parks and Wildlife Service. A full list of grantees is available on the CFI website here.
A Government press releases noted that each local project will receive access to experts to either develop a new Community Biodiversity Action Plan (CBAP) or support to implement measures from an existing plan.
The Biodiversity Fund has seen more than 200 such action plans developed across the country through a joint investment of €1.76m since 2019.
Minister of State for Nature, Heritage and Electoral Reform Malcolm Noonan, TD, said that the grants are “uniquely impactful” because they connect community groups with scientific expertise, helping them to better understand their local biodiversity.
“Successful grantees work with ecologists to create a Community Biodiversity Action Plan and can then seek funding to implement it. All of the data they collect is shared with the National Biodiversity Data Centre, making a valuable contribution to citizen science in Ireland,” he said.
In January, the Government published its National Biodiversity Action Plan 2023-2030 to tackle the deepening crisis of biodiversity loss in Ireland. This is the first plan to be published since it declared a biodiversity and climate emergency in 2019.
Launched at the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin, the plan sets out 194 actions to restore and protect the diversity of Ireland’s plants, animals and habitats.
Headline actions include the expansion of Ireland’s national parks, strengthened action on wildlife crime, strategic targeting of invasive species, collaboration on nature-friendly farming and exploration of ways to formally recognise the rights of nature.
“It’s vital that we empower communities to restore nature at grassroots level, especially as the National Biodiversity Action Plan takes root,” Noonan went on.
“Over the coming years, Local Authorities will also be developing Local Biodiversity Action Plans. Active, informed and engaged communities will help us ensure that policymaking for biodiversity is a two way street: top down and bottom up.”
Actions relating to the National Biodiversity Action Plan, which will be funded by the €3.15bn climate and nature fund, fall under five main objectives: adopt a whole-of-Government, whole-of-society approach to biodiversity; meet urgent conservation and restoration needs; secure nature’s contribution to people; enhance research on biodiversity; and strengthen Ireland’s contribution to international biodiversity initiatives.
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