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Over nine years, researchers with the Irish National Parks and Wildlife Service will work on making a single platform for biodiversity data.
The Government has today (6 March) announced funding of €34m for a project that aims to improve how biodiversity scientists use data for decision-making.
This project is part of a wider EU funding framework focused on nature and biodiversity called the Life Programme. This programme is comprised of multiple different ‘strategic nature projects’ which focus on a particular issue in biodiversity.
The new project will last nine years, during which time researchers will collate biodiversity information from several different sources together to help streamline data for scientists. They will create a new dedicated data platform that will help inform workers, as well as generate public-facing dashboards to be maintained after the project ends.
The work is being carried out to assist biodiversity experts as they conserve nature and battle the effects of the climate crisis on various species. It will provide them with the data they need to identify gaps in biodiversity policy and funding needs.
The data-oriented project will receive support from several bodies such as the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Coillte and the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS). The latter will lead the research.
Evidence-based
Niall Ó Donnchú, director general of NPWS, said the project will help to ensure that the organisation’s restoration work “is based on evidence of what works best for nature”.
NPWS has previously worked on other Irish-based strategic nature projects under the Life Programme, such as a project focusing on the Wild Atlantic Way, as well as ones looking at Irish peatlands and the Burren.
Minister for Nature, Heritage and Electoral Reform Malcolm Noonan, TD, commented that unless Ireland’s biodiversity researchers have “reliable information from a wide range of sources”, they can’t be certain their restoration efforts are effective.
“This funding of €34m has the potential to take biodiversity policy in Ireland to the next level,” said Minister of State for Land Use and Biodiversity in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Pippa Hackett.
“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.
“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 focused way, and develop more targeted strategies and policies for protection and restoration.”
Both Ireland and the EU have recently been focused on implementing projects to tackle growing biodiversity issues. Just a few days ago, the Irish Government announced €376,000 in a fresh round of grants for 78 community biodiversity projects across Ireland, while in February, the EU announced an investment into a number of European environmental and climate projects, with Ireland receiving €15.14m towards developing its network of marine protected areas in Irish waters.
The importance of these biodiversity efforts is more clear than ever following the release of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) major scientific report in January, which “reinforces the need for Ireland to pick up the pace of action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to our changed and future climate” according to EPA director general Laura Burke.
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