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BurrenLIFE Programme nominated for Green Awards

This year the European Commission is celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the LIFE Programme which has been supporting Environment and Climate actions in the EU since its inception in May 1992. This programme has successfully contributed to the preservation of our unique European natural, cultural and social heritage over the past 25 years, with over 4,300 projects supported and some €3.4 billion spent over this period.

http://life-25.eu/25th-anniversary/

To mark the 25th Anniversary of the LIFE Programme a number of initiatives are being run across the month of May, and one particular initiative is the Green Awards Facebook competition to choose the most outstanding completed LIFE projects since 1992.

Ireland’s very own BurrenLIFE Programme has been nominated as one of the top 5 projects in the Nature and Biodiversity category. The BurrenLIFE Programme has been tremendously successful in pioneering alternative approaches to sustainable management of high nature value farmland in the Burren region. It focuses not only on positive landscape management but also on cultural heritage and has also led to a changing mindset in how we can value, protect and manage our landscapes using partnership-led bottom-up approaches.

One of the key features of the programme is a strong focus on delivering results, incentivising optimum management practices through a stepped-payment system. Piloted on an initial set of 20 farms under the LIFE programme, the project has now been successfully transferred and adapted as a flagship locally-led Scheme under Ireland’s Rural Development Programme operated by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and supported by the National Parks and Wildlife Service since its inception. There are now over 200 participants in the Programme with a further intake planned for later in 2017.

The short-listing of the BurrenLIFE programme as one of the top 5 projects in the Nature category is a reflection of the widespread recognition and respect for the project at EU level. The winners in each of the categories will be announced on the 30 May 2017 at the Green Awards ceremony during EU Green Week in Brussels. There will be two Green Award winners in each of the three categories (i.e. six winners in total). The winners will be selected by means of a public vote on Facebook. Voting is open now until 10 May 2017.

Show your support for Ireland’s BurrenLIFE Programme by voting now at the following link: https://www.facebook.com/LIFE.programme/app/515720611858523/

To view this Press Release as a PDF: DAFMPR 80/2017 (pdf 265Kb) 

Date Released: 08 May 2017