Social value delivery on DAERA’s Bird Monitoring contract includes knowledge sharing initiatives to engage the agricultural sector.
DAERA’s supplier, the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), organised an event in early March at CAFRE’s Greenmount Campus entitled ‘Biodiversity and Agriculture: A Two Way Street’. The event explored interactions between nature and farming.
A range of speakers addressed over 70 agriculture students, including a representative from DAERA who provided an overview of land designations, priority habitats, and nature protection laws in Northern Ireland.
Other speakers included Buglife Northern Ireland, Butterfly Conservation and Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland who spoke about issues such as the role of earthworms, beetles, and pollinators in agriculture and plant biodiversity for soil nutrition. BTO also provided an update on the results of bird surveys which have been delivered through the contract.
“The event was a brilliant opportunity to give the students a deeper understanding of how biodiversity and farming go hand-in-hand,” said Hala Haddad – BTO NI Research Ecologist.
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