Horizons

Christmas shoppers in Dublin will have an opportunity to buy Fairtrade products such as crafts, decorations, foods and perfumes at a Fairtrade Christmas Fair next Saturday. Run by students from St Conleth's College, Ballsbridge, and Presentation Secondary School, Warrenmount, the fair will run from noon to 6 pm in Warrenmount School Hall, Blackpitts, Dublin 8 (just off Clanbrassil St). The Fairtrade Mark (Ireland) is a guarantee that third world producers have been paid a fair price and work in safe conditions. Workshops will be run throughout the day. Tel: 01-6770664.

The words "sustainable" and "sustainability" have become buzzwords of the 21st century. Ensuring a Sustainable Future for Urban Environments is the title of a conference at UCD on December 12th which aims to inform people about how their everyday activities help or hinder sustainability. For example, how you travel to work (by car, by bicycle or by public transport) will influence future transport policies and how you manage your household waste will influence the number of landfill sites required in the future, etc.

Other issues to be discussed include the increasing number of public health issues (e.g. the risk of congenital abnormalities close to landfill sites) which face us if governments don't ensure that environmental issues are taken into consideration in future (and ongoing) infrastructural and domestic and commercial building projects. The conference takes place in the University Industry Centre at Belfield, Dublin 4. Cost £45 (students, oaps and unwaged free). Booking: 01-7162756.

Three years ago, a report into public policy on children's play in Ireland found that there were more golf courses per person in Ireland than playgrounds (e.g. one golf course per 16,000 people compared to one playground per 19,098 people). The children's play organisation, Sugradh, is currently running a series of free community play-development workshops to help local groups to devise play policies and establish children's playgrounds in their area. The workshops focus on the importance of play as well as issues such as insurance, safety and play equipment. Forthcoming workshops will take place in Counties Wicklow, Wexford, Donegal, Galway, Roscommon and Leitrim. Contact Sugradh (tel: 01-2866991) for details of times and venues. Further workshops can also be organised upon request, but at a cost.

Anyone interested in seeing the effects of climate change around the world should check out the photographic exhibition: Images Beyond The Naked Eye. It continues at ENFO, 17 Andrew St, Dublin 2 until mid-December. Admission free.

Interference with the water levels at Tacumshin Lake in Co Wexford is threatening one of Ireland's most important sites for wetland birds, according to a report in the current issue of Wings magazine. The quarterly magazine of Birdwatch Ireland states that visiting birdwatchers this summer and autumn noticed that most of the lake bed was dried out.

The lake is a natural lagoon and the site is designated a Special Protection Area (SPA) site for birds. The problem, according to the Wings report, is that there is no agreement between D·chas and local landowners over management of water levels and, without such agreement, the site remains extremely vulnerable. A spokesperson for the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands said that a draft management plan has been prepared for the lake and will soon go to public consultation.