EPA - Ireland's Environment, An Integrated Assessment - 2020

Ireland’s Environment – An Integrated Assessment 2020 Voluntary Organisations that are Linking Citizen Science and Conservation Work Citizen science has been widely used to gather valuable observations that have helped monitor the trends in and distributions of various species in Ireland. BirdWatch Ireland, a non-governmental organisation, celebrated 50 years of conservation work in 2019. 28 It works to protect Ireland’s birds and their habitats. Many of its bird surveys involve volunteers drawn from its 15,000 members and the general public. There are several ways that people can get involved in protecting birds and biodiversity, including the annual Irish Garden Bird Survey. Other examples of citizen science in action are the bat monitoring schemes and surveys run by Bat Conservation Ireland 29 with the help of hundreds of volunteers each year. Stimulating and maintaining community involvement in citizen science projects such as these can be challenging and require a considerable amount of effort. Topic Box 6.7 Swift Conservation Project: A Citizen Science Initiative to Help a Species of Breeding Bird That is in Decline in Ireland The Swift Conservation Project helps to protect Ireland’s declining swift populations. Full-county swift surveys have been completed in Offaly, Westmeath, Laois and Tipperary, with more under way in Meath, Sligo and Wicklow. 30 The surveys, with the support of local volunteers and Tidy Towns groups, record swift nest sites in towns and villages to establish the distribution of nesting swifts. The data collected allow planners and decision-makers to more effectively protect swifts at site level. Surveys will also be completed of swifts at Office of Public Works (OPW) Heritage Sites across Ireland. The results of these surveys will enable the OPW to more effectively manage sites where swifts are present and, in some cases, attract swifts back to sites where they have been lost. 28 www.birdwatchireland.ie 29 https://www.batconservationireland.org/get-involved/volunteer-time 30 www.swiftconservation.ie Collaborative Action for the Natura Network project The Interreg VA Programme, an EU funding stream, is designed to finance strategic cross-border cooperation to achieve prosperity and increased sustainability. One recently funded project under the programme was the CANN (Collaborative Action for the Natura Network) project, which covers Northern Ireland, the border region of Ireland and western Scotland. The project aims to protect endangered species and restore natural habitats on a cross-border basis. It is hoped that the project will result in an improved conservation status for over 3000 hectares of protected habitats through direct on-the-ground conservation actions. Local Community Action Community engagement and local projects have a big part to play in protecting nature. The Community Wetlands Forum represents community groups who undertake projects that benefit local ecosystems. Their mission statement perfectly sums up what this local work is all about: ‘to support the protection, management and wise use of Ireland’s wetlands for sustainable communities, by providing a network for community wetland groups to share knowledge, ideas, research, and best practice’. 31 Well-established wetland projects include the Abbeyleix Bog Project, Co. Laois, Cabragh Wetlands, Co. Tipperary, and Fenor Bog, Co. Waterford. All these projects have shown the benefits of local community engagement. 32 The Local Authority Biodiversity Grant Scheme operated by the NPWS provides funding to assist local authority biodiversity officers (and heritage officers in local authorities without a biodiversity officer) with projects that promote actions contained in the National Biodiversity Action Plan 2017-2021. This scheme supports actions for biodiversity in local areas as engagement with communities and local authorities is crucial to the implementation of the Plan. The grants help raise awareness of biodiversity issues locally, regionally and nationally. 33 The Heritage in Schools Scheme is another project that provides local support through a panel of 160 Heritage Specialists who visit primary schools throughout the country. These specialists support the objectives of the Social, Scientific and Environmental Education (SESE) curriculum and provide an additional educational resource for teachers to cover nature projects. 34 31 https://www.communitywetlandsforum.ie/ 32 https://www.catchments.ie/sustainable-community-engagement-in- wetlands/ 33 https://www.npws.ie/news/minister-noonan-announces-31-local- authorities-will-carry-out-over-50-projects-promote 34 http://www.heritageinschools.ie/ 150