The Minister of State for Heritage and Electoral Reform at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, has confirmed 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 to avail of this funding to deliver local biodiversity projects. Over €87,000 was allocated to local projects through the Clare Local Authority in 2022.
First launched in 2018, the Local Biodiversity Action Fund offers funding to help Local Authorities achieve actions identified in the National Biodiversity Action Plan, recognising the important role they plan in addressing the biodiversity emergency. 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 National Parks and Wildlife Service of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, has proven hugely 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 Malcolm 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. Combined with our announcement last year of the appointment of Biodiversity Officers in the Local Authorities, today’s funding increase will allow the Local Authorities to play an ever more active role in our plans to address biodiversity loss. The State has increased its funding to the NPWS in light of the biodiversity crisis and I’m delighted that we’re able to in turn increase funding to important initiatives such as this.”
Examples of projects that received funding in 2022 include:
*The Hare’s Corner project which offers landowners practical and accessible support to enhance biodiversity on their land through the creation of habitats such as ponds, native orchards, and mini woodlands.
*A citizen science and strategic survey to assess the status, trends and breeding performance of Barn Owls throughout County Clare to identify their conservation requirements and implement a nest box scheme to provide suitable sites for the bird.
*A survey to determine the current status of the rare, threatened, and characteristic plants of the Burren.
*The development of a comprehensive online resource toolkit for the public and community groups as well as Local Authority staff on the management of invasive species on private land, public land, and while working near water.
*A study of the Quagga mussel carried out by several local authorities and a team from UCD to asses this high impact aquatic invasive alien species that was discovered in the Shannon in 2021.