St Patrick’s Legamaddy have been AWARDED just over £9524 TO LAUNCH RURAL COMMUNITY POLLINATOR GARDEN IN their school grounds.
St Patrick’s Legamaddy has been awarded £9524 as part of a brand-new Rural Community Pollinator Grants Scheme.
The initiative, financed by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) and managed by the civic-pride campaign Live Here Live Here is designed to allow community groups and schools across rural Northern Ireland to benefit from funding between £3,000 to £12,000 to establish, enhance or develop a local community pollinator garden.
The pilot scheme, which made £1.5 million available for 2021/22 aims to cover 95% of costs to community groups and schools wishing to embark on the community environmental project.
A Rural Community Pollinator Garden is a shared space with pollinating plants, habitats, wildflowers, flowers, shrubs and trees, and the grants support new initiatives aimed at protecting and providing for pollinators. As the recent State of Nature report ranks Northern Ireland as the 12th worst offender in the world for biodiversity loss, many will hope the scheme acts as a turning point in the fight against the destruction of nature.
Successful grant applicants were required to illustrate their plans to maximise pollinator-friendly land-management techniques to increase the biodiversity value of an area by planting for pollinators, and to transform unused spaces into valued community spaces, adding habitats and greening-up formerly grey areas.
Principal of St Patrick’s Primary School, Legamaddy, Mrs Sarah McDowell says, “We plan to use the money to create an outdoor learning space which will enhance our school grounds and the local community. We will build an outdoor classroom and plant fruit trees to attract more wildlife to our school grounds. We are delighted to receive the support of Live Here Love Here to help us create this space which will benefit the children in our school and will help to improve biodiversity in the area. We look forward to starting to create this area in the next few weeks and have it ready for the spring/summer term.”
Helen Tomb, Live Here Love Here Manager comments: “We are thrilled to support 185 projects through the Rural Community Pollinator Grants Scheme. This is a fantastic opportunity for communities to avail of resources to make their immediate environments as friendly as possible to our life-supporting pollinator species. We want to thank all the incredible volunteers who lend us their free time and hard work to help keep Northern Ireland beautiful. We always welcome and appreciate the support of those who believe in ‘Live Here Love Here’ message.”
For further information on the Rural Community Pollinator Grants Scheme, visitwww.liveherelovehere.org
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