Minister of State for heritage and electoral reform, Malcolm Noonan has today (Wednesday, January 25) announced a doubling of funding to the Local Biodiversity Action Fund to €3 million for 2023.
Local authorities can now apply to the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) to avail of this funding to deliver local biodiversity projects.
First launched in 2018, the Local Biodiversity Action Fund offers funding to help local authorities achieve actions identified in the National Biodiversity Action Plan.
Biodiversity funding
This funding stream enables the development of projects that address biodiversity loss in local authority areas by helping to create new habitats, restoring existing ones and by tackling invasive alien species.
The scheme, operated by the NPWS, has proven popular, with 109 projects funded in 2022.
A wide variety of projects were financed including in the areas of wetland restoration, bird surveys, dune restoration, biodiversity awareness and invasive alien species.
Commenting on the announcement, Minister Noonan said: “I’m delighted to be able to double the funding for this vital biodiversity funding scheme, which has proven immensely popular with local authorities, who have carried out really impactful projects with the funding.
“We have seen increasing participation in biodiversity and invasive species projects year-on-year, and the benefits of this are shared by all of us, not least local communities.
“Reversing biodiversity loss is among the greatest challenges of our times. Locally led initiatives can be extremely impactful – supporting them is an important part of the response. Local authorities play an important role in these efforts,” the junior minister added.
Examples of projects that received funding in 2022 include:
- A survey of south Dublin County to identify and map the distribution of wetlands in the region and develop a Wetland Inventory Database with GIS map;
- A survey to establish a detailed picture of the distribution of breeding Swifts in 49 localities across Co. Louth to allow decision-makers to effectively manage for Swifts at site level;
- A project to implement best practices in the protection and restoration of sand dune habitats designated within Natura 2000 sites in Co. Kerry;
- Low Carbon Town – a project in Co. Laois that aims to plant three small, dense native woodland habitats on school campuses and another at Laois Education Centre as an educational resource for teachers as part of new a Biodiversity Demonstration site;
- A Quagga Mussel project which saw nine local authorities alongside a team from University College Dublin (UCD) improve understanding of the ecology of this new invasive species in Ireland.
NBAP
An amount of €3 million has been made available in 2023 for the NBAP Local Authority Biodiversity Grant Scheme.
The funding was made available, in line with a grant application and award process, to biodiversity officers in the counties that have them, and heritage officers.
Work on drafting Ireland’s 4th NBAP is underway; the public consultation closed in November 2022 and will be published in 2023.