Kildare group gets funding for local biodiversity plan

Nurney Tidy Towns is receiving a boost with a new grant to support a local Biodiversity Action Plan to protect and promote plants, wildlife and habitats.

The grant from Community Foundation Ireland in partnership with the National Parks and Wildlife Service will ensure that the steps to protect local biodiversity will be guided by the expert knowledge of ecologists.

Orla Jennings, Secretary of Nurney Tidy Towns has welcomed the support.

“It is fantastic to have received this funding. Nurney Tidy Towns have engaged an Ecologist to develop a Biodiversity Action Plan for Nurney Village,” she said.

“This will provide the community with a palette of actions of various sizes that we can work towards. We look forward to working with other community groups to improve biodiversity within our village”

Nationally more than 94 projects are receiving support with more than 250 communities implementing local action plans since the partnership between the Community Foundation and the Parks and Wildlife Service started in 2019.

The support being provided comes from philanthropists and donors to the Foundation matched with public funding.

Under the partnership the connectivity of the Foundation to local communities built up over 25-years as a philanthropic hub is matched with the expertise and knowledge of the National Parks and Wildlife Service. More than €591,000 is being provided under the current round to 94 projects.

Denise Charlton, chief executive of Community Foundation Ireland said: “We are particularly proud that local efforts to protect habitats, plants and wildlife are increasingly growing into a national movement. The fact that this current grant round is impacting in every county shows the groundswell of support for biodiversity action.

“The partnership of the Foundation, its philanthropists and community partners together with the National Parks and Wildlife Service is effective and works.”