Key stakeholders work to restore pollinator habitats across agricultural landscapes
Posted on: 17 September 2024
Researchers in the People and Nature group (from Trinity’s Department of Botany) recently delivered the first Irish RestPoll stakeholder workshop, with the goal of restoring pollinator habitats across agricultural landscapes by working in tandem with farmers, land managers and other groups to deliver win-win solutions.
RestPoll is an EU Innovation Action project involving 16 countries, with Trinity one of 24 research institutions directly involved. RestPoll will co-design, evaluate, and refine measures and cross-sectoral approaches to restore habitats for pollinators and their services over the next three years of the project.
To achieve this, stakeholder networks are being formed in each participant country where regular workshops will aid knowledge transfer between stakeholder groups.
In Ireland, a network of farmers existed as a result of the European Innovation Partnership ‘Protecting Farmland Pollinators’ project, and RestPoll will build on this. At the first Irish workshop, RestPoll and Trinity researchers met with stakeholders at a participant farm in Athy, Co. Kildare, where farmers and representatives from Teagasc, DAFM, National Biodiversity Data Centre and BiOrbic were all present.
Discussions focused on some of the current challenges, and future opportunities for change.
Professor Jane Stout, Vice-President for Biodiversity and Climate Action at Trinity, is a PI on the RestPoll project. She said:
“Working closely with all stakeholders, including farmers, is critical if we are to build a strong network with a shared goal of consolidating pollinator friendly actions across agricultural landscapes around the country – and if we are to develop realistic, implementable solutions at scale. It was heartening to see we already have a shared belief that we must cooperate and support farmers, enabling them to be part of the solution. But it’s not just farmers – the whole food system needs to change to address the biodiversity crisis.
“We are really grateful to all those who attended and facilitated the first Irish workshop, and were delighted to note a desire among attendees to see the RestPoll network expand and to include a wider variety of stakeholder groups to more robustly facilitate farmer-to-researcher, farmer-to-policymaker and farmer-to-farmer knowledge exchange.”
Researchers, farmers and other stakeholders in the RestPoll project on a participant farm in Athy, Co. Kildare.
Dr Sarah Larragy, post-doctoral researcher working on the RestPoll project, added:
“We are enormously grateful to be part of a network of enthusiastic and forward-thinking stakeholders, and particularly farmers, who want to do right by nature in agricultural settings. The success of this workshop paves the way for continued collaboration and knowledge exchange, which will allow us to build upon the achievements of the Protecting Farmland Pollinators project.
Media Contact:
Thomas Deane | Media Relations | deaneth@tcd.ie | +353 1 896 4685