Burren farmers scoop prestigious EU Life Award

A community of farmers in the Burren has been awarded a special EU Life Award in recognition of its efforts in preserving and enhancing the local landscape.

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed, made the presentation to the group behind the Burren Life Programme during a ceremony in Kilfenora, Co. Clare, this evening, July 13.

The Burren Project Team was a joint victor in the nature and biodiversity category, with a series of winners chosen from the very best environment projects carried out in the EU over the past 25 years.

The coveted award was put together by the EU as it marks the 25^th anniversary of the Life Programme – which has supported over 4,300 environment, nature conservation and climate action projects since its inception in 1992.

For the 2014 to 2020 funding period, Life will have contributed around €3.4 billion to the protection of the European environment and climate, with €373 million in project grants available in 2017 alone.

Speaking at the ceremony, Minister Creed paid special tribute to the project’s team leader, Dr. Brendan Dunford, and the Burren farming community.

He said: “It is a huge achievement for an Irish project to win one of these prestigious awards, and to have been selected as the outstanding project in its category over the last 25 years is a tribute to the commitment of those involved.”

Jointly funded by the Department of Agriculture and the EU – through the Irish Rural Development Programme – the Burren Programme is a well-established, agri-environment scheme.

It is expected that the number of participating farmers in the programme will triple over its lifetime, with organisations like Teagasc, the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Heritage Council, all involved in the partnership.

Minister Creed added: “This award acknowledges two significant achievements, including the positive impact which Ireland’s Rural Development Programme, funded and managed by my department, can make to local farming communities through innovative schemes such as this.

Secondly, the award is rightly a source of huge pride to the farming community here in the Burren, and the team who have supported and worked with it over the last 15 years.

“They have created something very special – something which has caused the rest of Europe to sit up and take notice – and it is consistently pointed out as a model for other communities and, indeed countries, to follow.”

Meanwhile, the annual Burren Winterage Weekend festival – which is a celebration of pastoral farming – will take place from October 26 to 28 in Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare.

Organised by the BurrenBeo Trust, the theme of this year’s festival will be ‘community-inspired innovation for sustainable farming systems’.