2: Busy as a Bee - The Battle To Protect Our Pollinators

Update: 2021-02-18

Description

Whether you own a flower box, or run a farm, you can play your part in protecting our bees.

Currently one-third of our 98 wild bee species are threatened with extinction.

Helping biodiversity calls on all of us to manage our natural habitat in a different way.

Pollination is crucial in maintaining the quality of our food supplies.

Caring for pollinators is also of economic importance to our farmers, while protecting environmental health.

Last week, the National Biodiversity Data Centre published a report "Working Together for Biodiversity".

It highlighted what has been achieved through the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan in its first five years.

Implementation of the Plan was coordinated by the National Biodiversity Data Centre - a programme of the Heritage Council – which tracks changes in Ireland’s wildlife.

In publishing the Plan in September 2015, Ireland became one of the first countries in Europe to address this issue.

This plan was a collaboration between The Heritage Council, Biodiversity Ireland, Bord Bia - Irish Food Board, and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

It is supported by more than 100 governmental and non-governmental organisations.

The Plan identifies 81 actions to make Ireland more pollinator friendly.

In today’s podcast, project-manager Úna FitzPatrick, a Senior Ecologist in the National Biodiversity Data Centre, explains the background to what is a landmark development.

We also chat to Lorcan Scott, Wildlife Officer with The Heritage Council, about his work and the Council’s involvement in this area.

Finally, we talk to John Fogarty, a dairy farmer, from Tipperary.

He explains how small changes are having a big impact on biodiversity on his land.

Enjoy the show!

The Heritage Council:

Website

This podcast has been produced by Fuzion Communications.