An organisation set up to protect and conserve Irish land and its biodiversity is hoping to get people buzzing about World Bee Day.
Green Sod Ireland works with communities hosting school and community talks educating people on a range of topics – including our wild bee species.
“It’s not just about honey bees or bumblebees,” says Green Sod Ireland Programme Manager Janet Laffey, ahead of World Bee Day on May 20.
“There are 100 species of bees and 99 are wild bees including bumblebees and solitary bees. They carry out lots of pollination but don’t get the recognition of other species. We hope that by giving people fascinating information, we can create a spark of excitement in them.”
Pollinating insects are fundamental to the country’s ecological health. The final report of the Citizens Assembly on Biodiversity Loss put into stark relief the decline in Ireland’s natural environment – with urbanisation and the destruction of hedgerows, along with the increased use of fertilisers by the agriculture industry, blamed for the dramatic downturn in populations of pollinating insects.
This is particularly of interest given that May 22 is International Day for Biodiversity — just two days after World Bee Day.
Headquartered in Galway, Green Sod Ireland was set up in 2007 by a “group of seven forward-thinking women who saw, as we came towards the end of the Celtic Tiger, that the respect for land around the country was quite low”. “The idea was to set up a land trust to protect land and the species on it. In 2010, we were gifted about five acres of land on the Wicklow-Carlow border called Red Bog. Now we manage land across six different counties – Galway, Cork, Carlow, Donegal, Mayo and Cavan — with more land in the process of being transferred. We expect that we will soon be managing almost 200 acres nationally.”
Green Sod Ireland used National Lottery Good Causes funding in 2021 to promote the group’s Bee Aware campaign for schools in areas in which it manages land.
“Our classroom workshops are delivered both indoors and outdoors. We teach about pollinators and the importance of planting hedgerows and the negative environmental impact of chemical sprays. If they have a vegetable patch on the school grounds, we show them which vegetables are best for pollinators. We try to make it as relatable as possible for them,” says Janet.
She continues: “Funding leads to more funding and it all goes to support the growth of the organisation, whether that’s supporting our conservation work, education programmes, or providing core funding. Thanks to further Good Causes funding from The Heritage Council last year, I was able to transform my role from volunteer to part-time Programme Manager. I now manage land banks and work with ecologists to gather information which informs conservation management decisions we make at our sites on a daily basis. We are only now recognising the impact of the support from the National Lottery. That’s been great for us.”
Janet admits to feeling heartened by the increased emphasis on biodiversity and climate issues in public discourse in recent times.
“It’s brilliant that there’s lots of organisations doing this kind of work now. We’re seeing the impact of climate change and biodiversity loss more. One of the effects of this is that people know more now than ever before. Green Sod Ireland is working to build up that knowledge base,” says Janet.
Janet’s background is in landscape and environmental consultancy. “But I’ve found that, in this kind of work, it’s almost better not to be an ecologist because you get to engage with so many different experts. I’ve learned so much about nature conservation and I’ve found it really exciting. From the perspective of educating people and recruiting teachers, excitement is key. Our biggest challenge is demystifying who can teach. What we try to tell people is: if you can get excited about something, you can teach it.”
Nearly 30 cent in every €1 spent on all National Lottery games goes back to Good Causes in the areas of sport, youth, health, welfare, education, arts, heritage, and the Irish Language. In total more than €6 Billion has been raised for Good Causes since the National Lottery was established 36 years ago. In 2022 alone, €259.5 million was raised for local Good Causes in communities across Ireland.
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