Local council launches new biodiversity strategy

FERMANAGH and Omagh District Council (FODC) has launched an ambitious new five-year strategy to enable more people to connect with nature and protect and enhance local biodiversity.

The Biodiversity Strategy is described by the local council as a ‘tangible response’ to the impacts of climate change, and the need to restore ecosystems.

FODC chair, Barry McElduff, said, “Our district is a unique and rich environment that is home to a wide variety of protected habitats and wildlife. It is renowned for its beautiful scenery and wide-open landscape of hills, lakes, rivers, caves, woodlands and bogs.

“And that means we have a special responsibility to protect and sustain it – not just for ourselves, but for future generations and the planet.

“It is important to recognise that a global biodiversity crisis can also have an impact locally.

“Therefore, together we must act now to reverse this.

“This strategy outlines the positive action and practical steps which the council can take, including raising awareness of the importance of biodiversity amongst residents of all ages.

“We must all work in partnership to ensure we protect, enhance and restore our biodiversity locally.”

The strategy sets out the local council’s commitments over the next five years.

It focuses on evidence-based needs across seven key themes, and the shared responsibility to protect, maintain, enhance, restore and promote understanding of the local natural environment and biodiversity.

From implementing the ‘Don’t Mow, Let It Grow’ campaign for pollinators, and planting more than 10,500 trees over the last five years, to delivering workshops in communities and schools across the district, FODC says it is committed to promoting and embedding good practice.

The delivery of the Biodiversity Strategy over the next five years will enable the council to bring the UN’s vision of ‘living in harmony with nature by 2050’ to life, and support the aims and objectives in the local authority’s ‘Climate Change and Sustainable Development Strategy and Corporate Plan’ and the ‘Fermanagh and Omagh Community Plan 2030’.

l A copy of the strategy can be downloaded from the FODC website. For more information and how you can get involved, contact the FODC Biodiversity Team at biodiversity@fermanaghomagh.com.