|
We are Ireland's national biodiversity education organisation for young people. Our aim is to empower young people across Ireland to help nature by giving them the support they need.
This is important for two reasons. Firstly, to tackle the biodiversity crisis by boosting eco-literacy and rewilding our schools. Secondly, to share with young people the joys of outdoor learning to boost their physical and mental wellbeing. We created this initiative as we felt the best way to ensure a more nature-positive future for Ireland was to engage with the next generation. While there is outstanding work being done in Irish schools, time pressures often push nature to the bottom of the pile. We aim to make it easy as possible for schools to teach children about this important topic and counteract this 'nature deficit' by providing everything needed to achieve this goal from teaching kits to workshops, school gardens to outdoor classrooms. The pressures we are putting on nature are extraordinary and the losses to date are a very sad reflection on our society. Sadly, since 1970 over half of the earth’s wildlife populations have been lost; 68% of all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish are now gone. Every 3 seconds a forest the size of Croke Park is lost. In recognition of this, in May 2019 the Irish government declared a Biodiversity and Climate Change Emergency. It is a tough task ahead but young people across Ireland and the world are a beacon of hope as they continue to take to the streets in protest, standing up for the environment. |
what if our schools
|
|
Schools
|
Teachers
|
Students
we could create a nationwide nature reserve patchwork of over...
ACRES
or
Croke Parks
Unfortunately Ireland has had an extremely poor record of biodiversity conservation for decades and nature education on a national level has remained under-developed. It is our ambition to encourage and provide nature education that the children of Ireland deserve and that we as a country can be proud of on an international level. To this end, in 2021 we rolled out Ireland's first ever Biodiversity Education Officer network and in 2022 we launched the Nature Hero Awards, the national mark of excellence in outdoor education.
We can't stress enough how urgent the problem is. We all need to do our absolute best every day to stop biodiversity loss or future generations will pay the price, as David Attenborough so concisely and accurately points out:
We can't stress enough how urgent the problem is. We all need to do our absolute best every day to stop biodiversity loss or future generations will pay the price, as David Attenborough so concisely and accurately points out:
"Right now, we're facing a man-made disaster of global scale... If we don't take action, the collapse of our civilizations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon."
|
References
Department of Education and Skills (2019) Key Statistics IPCC (2018) Special Report Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C Irish Times (2018) David Attenborough: Mass extinction is ‘on the horizon’. Population Reference Bureau (2016) World Population Data Sheet World Wildlife Fund (2017) Deforestation World Wildlife Fund (2018) Living Planet Report World Wildlife Fund (2020) Living Planet Report |
How are we funded?
We do not receive any annual, state, core-funding. Instead, as a social enterprise we sustain our organisation entirely through providing high quality, innovative products and services to schools, public bodies and businesses. We thank them sincerely for their support. Without them, we would not exist. All our profits are reinvested into 'Biodiversity in Schools' to ensure we do absolutely everything we can to stop the biodiversity crisis. |
