I am delighted to work alongside Minister Malcom Noonan on a new €34m Strategic Nature Project (SNaP) to transform Ireland’s approach to biodiversity data.
Pictured with Dr Derek Mc Loughlin and Minister Malcom Noonan at the the launch of Wild atlantic nature at Ballycroy National Park during Biodiversity week in 2022.
Pic: Michael Mc Laughlin
This funding of €34 million has the potential to take biodiversity policy in Ireland to the next level. Over the past number of years, we have implemented a number of results-based programmes through which farmers are paid for improvements in on-farm biodiversity, across EIPs, LIFE projects and now ACRES.
The advisory and scoring work in these programmes is labour intensive, with huge amounts of really valuable data collected as part of that work.
This nine-year project will allow us to make the most of those incredibly rich information stores, and use that data more effectively so that we can better understand trends, identify conservation priorities in an even more focussed way, and develop more targeted strategies and policies for protection and restoration.
You can read more about this Project here.