by
SYLVIA THOMPSON
BIODIVERSITY PLAN
The International Year of Biodiversity enables us to plan for protecting biodiversity (the variety of life forms on the planet), says Cliona O’Brien, wildlife officer at the Heritage Council.
According to her, the current water shortages highlight the need to protect species that preserve our healthy water sources. “Water lice and the threatened crayfish are just two of the species that clean and purify the waters in our rivers, lakes and wetlands and also absorb the pollution,” she says. Targets set by the EU to halt biodiversity loss by 2010 have failed and O’Brien suggests a National Biodiversity Action Plan by the relevant Government departments is needed.
10:10 IN 2010
The international 10:10 campaign aims to encourage everyone to reduce their carbon emissions by 10 per cent this year. The Irish campaign manager, John Hesnan and two eight-foot animatronic walking, singing, dancing polar bears (with Marie Bannon of Dublin Zoo) will visit schools, hospitals, multinational companies and local businesses around Ireland. The polar bears’ message is that cutting emissions by 10 per cent is easy and it will save energy, save money, save polar bears and move Ireland towards being a low carbon society. See 1010.ie or check details in your local library.
A LOT MORE ALLOTMENTS?
Organic vegetable box schemes, where consumers buy weekly boxes of vegetables in season from suppliers, and, in some cases, directly from farmers, have become popular in recent years. Now, with many more people growing vegetables in allotments and in their own gardens, there may be opportunities to establish more such schemes. Market gardener Ingrid Foley will give a one-day course on producing for a vegetable box scheme next Friday in the Organic Centre, Rossinver, Co Leitrim. Tel: 071 9854338 or see theorganiccentre.ie.
ECOWEB
biodiversityireland.ie
The revamped website of the National Biodiversity Data Centre provides easy access to Ireland’s wildlife distribution maps for species, events listings and news on wildlife recording and surveying.
