People and Nature

 

 

Bug Hotel at Monivea National School. Photo Elaine O'Riordan

People and Nature – the Galway County Biodiversity Project began as a partnership project between Galway County Council and the Applied Ecology Unit, NUI Galway, supported by the Heritage Council and the Galway County Heritage Forum. The aim of the People and Nature Project is to promote, protect and enhance the biodiversity of County Galway. The Project carries out a number of projects and activities in each of these areas every year under the Galway County Biodiversity Action Plan  working in three key areas.

• Awareness and Education-To create a greater awareness of the biodiversity of County Galway and provide sound advice to the offices of Galway County Council and the public on all aspects of biodiversity.
• Conservation – To conserve and enhance the biodiversity of County Galway through affirmative policy and action.
• Knowledge – To improve our knowledge of biodiversity in County Galway through promoting and supporting research and knowledge sharing.

The theme ‘People and Nature’ highlights the people focused approach of the project. We believe that the People of County Galway are central to the conservation of our beautiful natural environment. The project encourages a ‘bottom-up’ approach to managing nature at the local level whereby communities working together on the ground can have a great benefit for our local biodiversity. The People and Nature Project seeks to assist and support communities, groups and organisations working on biodiversity projects in their local area by providing advice on biodiversity, legislation, best practice and funding and developing partnerships with other agencies and organisations that can help.

The Biodiversity Project is currently running on a part time basis  Managed by Heritage Officer, Marie Mannion and Consulting Project Manager – Dr Janice Fuller who oversees the day to day running of the project and the annual plan of work. If you would like to contact either Marie or Janice, they can be reached by phone:

Janice: 086 3476891 or email janicefuller@eircom.net

Marie: 091 509198 or email mmannion@galwaycoco.ie