ABC Council has a team of 5 people with the role of promoting greater biodiversity across the Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon Borough Council. The Biodiversity Manager feels that there is a core of enthusiastic bird watchers that enjoy Oxford Island but most of the 200,000 visitors treat it as a local park for a walk, getting children out of the house and dog walkers.
The Biodiversity Team have a close relationship with members of Butterfly Conservation, RSPB Ulster Wildlife. These groups are well-informed and motivated.
The communication strategy with volunteers is done mostly through Facebook with 11,000 followers.
They deliver 3-4 hour education workshop for 7,000 pupils for children at Nursery School, Primary School and a few secondary schools from across N. Ireland and Monaghan
Family activities – Teddy Trails / Halloween trail
ABC Reviewing strategy
Biodiversity team needs to be seen to work across the whole borough.
Need a more interactive relationship with residents of the borough.
The Biodiversity Manager has taken the opportunity to chat to visitors to Oxford Island and has recorded the following suggestions: -
Many people are aware of biodiversity loss but do not know what they can do in their own garden / housing estate / farm.
Covid encouraged people to explore their local area – parks, beaches forest parks and would like to be able to recognise a few birds, flowers and trees to make their walk more interesting.
People are concerned about the blue green algae in Lough Neagh but do not make the connection between the issue and their own: -
Monaghan Tidy Towns is a volunteer network that manages the Tidy Town submission to the national awards. Over the last few years, the weighting (number of points) awarded for the biodiversity element under the Tidy Towns Award has increased.
Monaghan Tidy Towns secured funding from the LEADER programme to promote biodiversity around the town. They organised a series of community events that have attracted a lot of interest and support: