Sligo communities invited to apply for biodiversity grants

SLIGO communities working to protect and promote local plants and wildlife are being invited to apply for funding from a partnership initiative by The Community Foundation for Ireland and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

The grant round is aimed at growing the number of areas across the country which are now implementing Local Biodiversity Action Plans. Applications are being invited from two grant rounds – with grants of up to €10,000 available.

The partnership between the Community Foundation and Government has, since 2019, supported the development of 45 local action plans with a further 89 already being planned. Now more communities are being invited to join. The first round of grants is aimed solely at those who wish to develop a plan. They are being invited to work with an ecologist to assess and map local landscapes, to establish their condition and then to identify actions which will protect wildlife.

A second round of funding is aimed at areas which have already formed a plan and need support to implement recommendations. Grants under this round are up to €5,000.

Full details of the funding are available at www. communityfoundation. ie with a closing date of October 7, 2022. Announcing the opening of applications, Denise Charlton, Chief Executive of The Community Foundation for Ireland said: “In Sligo and every part of the country people have been energised to protect riverbanks, green areas, hedgerows, native forests, bogs and peatlands and so much more for future generations. The impact of our Biodiversity Fund in partnership with the Government has been truly amazing.

“Now we want to go further and build the network of communities in Sligo which have both a local action plan and recommendations informed by experts.

“Significantly, our funding not only brings people and experts together it also includes those who often know the most about local biodiversity, farmers and landowners.

“Our efforts are not just benefitting local areas but as the network grows it is allowing for the first national mapping of the damage human activity has done to our natural habitats.

“This information is being collated by the National Biodiversity Data Centre to give a true picture of the losses which have been incurred, and a way forward on how we can correct them.”

In 2019 The Community Foundation for Ireland convened a panel of stakeholders, including academics, independent ecologists, NGOs and heritage officers, as well as experienced grants executives, to develop the Biodiversity Funding Strand within our Environment and Nature Fund.

As a result of this convening, a grants scheme was devised to enhance biodiversity in communities throughout the country by combining the expertise of qualified ecologists with the skills, experience, and enthusiasm of local community groups. In 2019, 56 grants totalling €349,611.20 were awarded to community groups to develop Community Biodiversity Action Plans. Some groups experienced delays due to Covid however to date we have received 45 completed plans and work continues on the other 11.

These plans and their supporting data which is uploaded to The National Biodiversity Data Centre has yielded 6,000 pieces of information on up to 882 species of flora and fauna in Ireland.

In 2020, due to Covid, grants were given to organisations working in the area of biodiversity, in order to sustain their important work during a period of uncertainty. Eight grants were given totalling €295,000.

In 2021 communities were again invited to apply for funding to carry out a Community Biodiversity Action Plan. 77 grants totalling €321,643 were made. Those awarded grants in 2019 were given the opportunity to apply for funding to carry out recommendations from their completed plans.A total of 28 groups applied and were given funding of €91,389 to enable them to start implementing actions to improve the biodiversity of their communities.

The National Biodiversity Data Centre: The National Biodiversity Data Centre hosts a dataset for all surveys and records as part of projects related to the Community Foundation for Ireland. This dataset currently has over 6,000 records for 882 species and will be continually updated with new survey data when this becomes available.

The link between the National Biodiversity Data Centre and the Community Foundation for Ireland is of strategic importance.