A Corncrake singing. Image: © Rein/Stock.adobe.com
Minister Malcolm Noonan, TD, said the grants will connect community groups with scientific experts, helping them to better understand their local biodiversity.
The Government has announced €376,000 in a fresh round of grants for 78 community biodiversity projects across Ireland.
These projects range from protecting the red-listed Corncrake bird species on the Aran Islands, developing Sand Martin nesting sites in the midlands to creating an 11-acre nature reserve on the Nore river at Thomastown, Kilkenny.
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.
Biodiversity action is badly needed
Just last week, the European Parliament passed a long-debated law to restore and protect 20pc of habitats and species by 2030.
A report by the European Environment Agency in 2020 found that 80pc of European habitats are in poor shape. One in three bee and butterfly species are in decline, and over the past decade 71pc of fish and 60pc of amphibian populations have declined. Up to 70pc of soils were found to be in an unhealthy condition.
“Despite significant efforts by member states and some improvements, biodiversity in the EU continues to decline and faces deteriorating trends from changes in land and sea use, overexploitation and unsustainable management practices, as well as water regime modification, pollution, invasive alien species and climate change,” the report stated.
In January, the Irish Government published its National Biodiversity Action Plan 2023-2030 to tackle the deepening crisis of biodiversity loss. 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, which is funded by the €3.15bn climate and nature fund, 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 said of today’s grants.
“Over the coming years, local authorities will also be developing local biodiversity action plans. Active, informed and engaged communities will help us ensure that policy-making for biodiversity is a two way street: top down and bottom up.”
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