Natura Communities
Natura Communities is an initiative from Wild Atlantic Nature LIFE Integrated Project (IP), which is a nine-year environmental project (2021-2029) led by the National Parks and Wildlife Service of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
Natura Communities aims to connect local communities with Natura 2000 sites in their area. The vision for the Natura Communities initiative is to build capacity in communities to enable the delivery of locally-led nature conservation and ecosystem restoration. To ensure success, it is necessary for local communities to have the knowledge and skills in all levels of conservation project management, such as administration, technical know-how, regulatory requirements and related factors.
By directly investing in communities, there is the potential to support long-term conservation; whereby experience and expertise is developed and retained by a competent and dedicated workforce, living and working in their local area. Building capacity to engage in this type of work has two broad benefits; it will deliver social benefits for people in these areas (e.g. through creating opportunities for local employment) whilst improving the ecological quality of habitats. In due course, it is hoped that all blanket bogs in the Natura 2000 network in Ireland will have a dedicated Natura Communities team, who will be in a position to identify and address pressures, threats and issues in relation the conservation status of these habitats.
Wild Atlantic Nature
Wild Atlantic Nature LIFE Integrated Project (IP) is a nine-year environmental project (2021-2029) led by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. It aims to improve Ireland’s performance in conserving habitats, and in particular to improve the conservation status in the Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) Network of blanket bog, a priority habitat under the Habitats Directive. The primary focus is on 35 Natura 2000 sites in the northwest of Ireland. The project works with farmers and local communities to conserve and improve the quality of blanket bogs and associated habitats, and the ecosystem services they provide including clean water, carbon storage and biodiversity.
The project will implement a number of actions aimed at enhancing wider community engagement in the project. These include establishing local support groups across the project sites, developing and implementing community knowledge exchange programmes, administering community outreach activities, developing a school’s education programme, supporting communities to develop and manage tourism and recreational activities and develop appropriate infrastructure. Another key action of the project will be a national campaign to enhance public awareness and appreciation of Ireland’s Natura 2000 network. Other actions will include site surveys, ecological assessments, training for concrete conservation actions, control of invasive species, fire prevention, water management and monitoring and evaluation.
The first two years of the project saw a very successful pilot voluntary Results Based agri-environment Payment Scheme (RBPS), which was linked to the quality of the habitat, thereby putting the landowner, their skills, expertise and knowledge of their land central to the development of the project.
As well as working locally, the Wild Atlantic Nature LIFE IP project brings together the experience and knowledge of associated partners including the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, RTÉ, Coillte, Fáilte Ireland, The Heritage Council, Bord na Móna, Teagasc, Northern & Western Regional Assembly, and Universidade de Santiago de Compostela in Spain.