Mayo community efforts to protect and promote local plants, wildlife and nature are getting a major boost with six projects being supported to develop and implement local action plans.
The plans are being supported under a long-standing partnership between Community Foundation Ireland and its philanthropists with the National Parks and Wildlife Service.
Under the partnership communities in Laois and across the country are provided access to expert ecologists to decide the best ways to protect or promote wildlife and then to implement through the Action Plan.
Some 252 communities across the country have been supported by the Community Foundation and the Parks Service since 2019. The latest Mayo Groups are:
Balla Community Resource Development (€6,000) to provide new willow structure, bird and hedgehog boxes in sensory garden. New native shrubs and flowers to be planted and encouraged and re-installing a bee bank for solitary wild bees. This work will coincide with extensive public awareness events and trails as well a new natural murals in sites around the town.
Edible Landscape Project, Westport (€6,000) to expand the Food Forest concept to other residential estates around Westport to enhance place-based food security and community resilience to the negative impacts of climate change. Work will also include edible workshops – planting apple or other fruit trees along with a range of beneficial companion plants to form systems for pollinating insects and help to fertilise the soil to create a self-sustaining, guild or food forest planting system with local community groups and residents.
Ballyhaunis Tidy Towns (€5,000) to carry out an invasive species assessment to inform a removal of non-native species alongside the river and replace with native trees and shrubs.
Inishturk Community Club CLG (€5,000) develop a local Biodiversity Action Plan to help identify local species, invasive species, ecosystems, and natural habitats. Promote the responsible use of natural resources, ensuring that community development and environmental health are balanced. Furthermore, the plan will foster local involvement by raising awareness about environmental issues and endangered species through workshops, heritage days and engagement with the island’s Primary School students.
Coiste Cultúr Teanga agus Forbartha Thuar Mhic Éadaigh CFTR (€5,000) to classify local habitats, assess their condition and extent, map them, and define a set of suitable actions to enhance biodiversity in our community. This work will help inform local people, including farmers and other landowners, and provide practical options for improved management of green and blue spaces and natural habitats.
CALL Climate Action Louisburgh Locality (€5,000) to partner with an ecologist to undertake a baseline biodiversity survey using written, mapped and aerial photos; local knowledge; targeted fieldwork; outline management recommendations; identify suitable sites for biodiversity interpretation.
Making the announcement of support for the latest biodiversity projects, Minister of State for Nature, Heritage and Biodiversity Christopher O’Sullivan TD said:
“If we are to successfully tackle our national biodiversity crisis, we must all work together. This partnership between the National Parks and Wildlife Service and Community Foundation Ireland is a great example of how we can empower and support community organisations to learn about their local biodiversity and use that knowledge along with their creativity to come up with a plan which is unique to their area. I’m really impressed with the range of projects involved and excited to see the outcomes of their work.”
Congratulating all the projects, Denise Charlton, Chief Executive of Community Foundation Ireland said:
“We are particularly proud that local efforts in Mayo to protect habitats, plants and wildlife are increasingly growing into a national movement. The fact that this current grant round is impacting in every county shows the groundswell of support for biodiversity action. The partnership of the Foundation, its philanthropists and community partners together with the National Parks and Wildlife Service is effective and works. Our natural heritage is being protected for generations to come.”
