Kildare County Council in partnership with the Irish Peatland Conservation Council, will launch a new project this autumn, entitled Kildare Bio Box. The project, which is funded by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, via the Local Biodiversity Action Fund 2023, will offer thirty primary schools in Kildare a free box of biodiversity resources, including species identification swatches and guides for teachers to explore biodiversity with students.
In addition, twenty of the schools that receive a Kildare Bio Box will also be offered a complimentary biodiversity visit to their school. A specialist guide from the Irish Peatland Conservation Council will take students on a journey of discovery of habitats and biodiversity in their local community.
Biodiversity or ‘biological diversity’, is the variety of all life on earth in all its forms and all its interactions. Biodiversity includes the worms in the soil and the birds in the sky, the trees in our parks and the wildflowers in your garden. It also includes us! Around 31,000 species are known to occur in Ireland, yet the conservation status of only about 10% of these has been assessed. This means we have a fundamental knowledge gap in how biodiversity is changing in Ireland.
Biodiversity provides many services to our communities, for example, all plants absorb carbon dioxide, as they photosynthesise to make their own food, and act as nature’s air filters; while bumblebees and hoverflies are pollinators, completing an essential task to ensure our food grows. Habitat loss, invasive species, over-exploitation, pollution and climate change have however all been identified as drivers of biodiversity loss; but is there anything we can do? For young members of our community the first step is to learn about the diversity of living things all around us, and Kildare Bio Box is here to help.
Knowing what biodiversity we have in our school grounds, local parks or roadside verges, we can then consider steps to support and enhance it.
If you think your local school would be interested in having one of the thirty free boxes delivered to their school, or indeed get involved in one of the twenty free biodiversity visits, please contact kildarebiobox@gmail.com
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