All 31 Local Authorities have received funding under The National Biodiversity Local Authority Biodiversity Grant Scheme including €41,500 for Kildare according to Senator Fiona O’Loughlin
An amount of €1.35 million has been made available in 2021 for this scheme, which is operated by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
The funding offers funding to assist local authority biodiversity officers (and heritage officers in local authorities without a biodiversity officer) and an exciting range of projects have been funded this year. All of the projects to receive funding promote actions contained in the National Biodiversity Action Plan (NBAP) 2017-2021. This year the funding was double that of 2020.
“There is good news for nature in every Local Authority in Ireland today,” said Senator O’Loughlin. “I’m thrilled to see so many excellent biodiversity projects receive funding under the Local Authority Biodiversity Grant Scheme, which I doubled funding for this year. Community-level action is so important, and the initiatives provided for through this grant demonstrate the scale and breadth of interest in biodiversity and the natural world across the country. I can’t wait to get out and visit them over the coming year.”
€27,000 has been awarded for Kildare Biodiversity Actions 2021 which will include an online workshops/mentoring facilitated by an ecologist to support the Local Implementation Groups in 12 towns and villages across the county, Two public online pollinator Workshop and Citizen Science on how to undertake projects locally, in addition to high quality professional produced videos seeking to highlight typical habitats occurring in Kildare on public assessable sites, the ecosystem service they provide and the potential impact of climate change on these habitats. While €14,500 has been awarded for the control of American skunk cabbage (Lysichiton americanus ), a species on EU Species of Union Concern List. 82 sites of American Skunk Cabbage have been identified and mapped in Kildare along the river by UDC. It is proposed to work with UCD to carry out control of American Skunk Cabbage along the Liffey using mechanical methods, chemical methods; and a mixture of both while monitoring and assessing the best control techniques