Businesses to fund wildlife ponds, hedgerows and woodlands as part of ReFarm project

Posted on: 22 October 2024

Businesses will fund the creation and management of wildlife ponds, hedgerows, woodlands and species-rich grasslands on a number of Irish farms under a new pilot project launched by Pippa Hackett, Minister of State for Land Use and Biodiversity, in Trinity on Tuesday, 22 of October.

ReFarm is a collaboration between Trinity College Dublin, Burrenbeo Trust and local and international businesses. The project aims to make ‘farming for nature’ sustainable and scalable for farmers and provide businesses with an opportunity to fund nature-positive actions on Irish farms in a way that can be reported under new EU sustainability reporting directives.

ReFarm has raised over €1 million to fund nature-positive actions on Irish farms and an accompanying research programme. The funders of ReFarm are RWE Renewables Ireland, John Paul Construction, CIE Tours, BiOrbic, Trinity Business School, Community Foundation Ireland and an impact investor. 

In the first two years, Trinity will undertake a research programme to examine long-term funding structures for businesses to invest in nature-positive actions on Irish farms. This important research is being led by Professor Jane Stout, School of Natural Sciences, and Professor Martha O’Hagan, Trinity Business School, and is being supported by the Taighde Éireann – Research Ireland Bioeconomy research centre BiOrbic.

ReFarm has already started to fund nature-positive actions and will continue to do so over the five-year period of the project. More information can be found at www.refarm.ie. 

Welcoming the ReFarm project Pippa Hackett, Minister of State for Land Use and Biodiversity, said: “Two thirds of the landmass of Ireland is farmland, so it’s only by working with farmers that we will achieve positive outcomes for biodiversity at scale. ReFarm is a hugely exciting project, not only in that it leverages private finance to complement public subsidies – which is going to be critical in the coming years in tackling the climate and biodiversity emergencies – but also because it is underpinned by the expertise of Burrenbeo Trust and Trinity College Dublin.

"Participating farmers can have confidence in the quality of the advice from Burrenbeo, and participating businesses will know that the nature-positive outcomes they’re reporting under new EU requirements are underpinned by a first class research institution in Trinity College Dublin.”

Prof. Jane Stout, Professor of Ecology and VP For Biodiversity & Climate Action, Trinity, added: “Engaging with farmers to restore biodiversity on their farms has the greatest potential for positive change. At the same time businesses want to invest in nature. ReFarm brings together the farming community and private sector investors to provide critical funding for farmers to restore nature on their land, and a mechanism to scale this up.”

Prof. Martha O’Hagan, Trinity Business School, added: “ReFarm brings together research expertise from across the School of Natural Sciences and Trinity Business School. By partnering with businesses, farmers, and experts, we will pilot real-world projects from day one, scaling them through innovative financial mechanisms and academic insight. This new national initiative ultimately aims to make farming for nature sustainable and scalable to meaningfully address our biodiversity and climate crises.”

Burrenbeo Trust’s Dr Brendan Dunford, a co-founder with Anke Heydenreich of Project ReFarm, said: “We are convinced that there are enough farmers and funders out there who  really want to act now to enhance farmland biodiversity. Project ReFarm will mobilise and connect these parties, and then learn from this engagement, so that we can build a brighter future for nature and for farming in Ireland.”

Peter Lefroy, Offshore Development Head for Ireland and UK West, RWE Renewables Ireland, commented: “RWE Renewables Ireland is proud to be an industry partner in the ReFarm Project. RWE is committed to become climate neutral by 2040 with research and innovation central to this goal.

"Our collaboration will further refine our pledge to promote collective learning and knowledge transfer for the betterment of our portfolio and industry. Building on our contribution to reduce Ireland’s dependency on fossil fuels, RWE is excited to contribute, in a meaningful way, to both world-leading research and measurable actions to maximise the resilience of Ireland’s ecosystems.”

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