Cornwall Insight has joined 52 pledgers and over 90 Irish schools and community groups in an initiative to plant more than 1000 mixed fruit orchards across Ireland. The “Orchards in the Community” project will help protect the bees in Ireland and increase pollination, with the orchards playing a key role in providing an early food source for struggling bees.
The five orchards from Cornwall Insight include four going to Smart D8, with planting at two schools and two residential and community sites in Dublin, as well as one planted at Dunhill Ecopark. They are important habitats as the natural life cycle of fruit trees provides food sources for pollinators and other species throughout the year.
The orchards also provide vital green spaces in our cities and towns, where people are encouraged to interact with nature either through becoming custodians of the trees or by simply being around them and enjoying their shade, beauty, and fruit.
With “Orchards in the Community”, orchards are being planted in every single county on the island of Ireland – both in the Republic and Northern Ireland – making this an all-Ireland effort.
Orla Veale, Smart D8, Project Lead, said:
“Bees are critically important to sustaining life on the planet with a third of the world’s food production depending on bees. Sadly, factors including lack of nutrition, global warming, pollution and poor urban planning has left 33% of bees in Ireland facing extinction.
“It is wonderful to see Cornwall Insight join so many others in working to slow the decline of bees and other pollinators by building orchards which provide them with the food to sustain their survival.
“Not only do these orchards work to protect many species, but they also provide a hub for school pupils and inner-city communities to enjoy nature and relax away from the hustle and bustle of urban areas.”
Garry Connolly, founder of organisers Host in Ireland said:
“Orchards have played an important role in communities for many centuries, providing a focal point, a gathering space, and a place where people and nature successfully work together to create abundant harvests
That spirit of community is alive and well with ‘Orchards in the Community’ as organisations like Cornwall Insight come together with biodiversity groups, schools, colleges, Tidy Towns and others across Ireland to tackle challenges like biodiversity loss to save Ireland’s pollinators.”
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Notes to Editors
The five orchards are:
Mercy Secondary School Inchicore, Dublin 8
Dunhill Eco Park, Waterford
Oliver Bond Resident Group, Dublin 8
Basin Lane Educate Together, Basin Lane, Dublin 8
Taplins Fields, Dublin 8
For more information, please contact: Verity Sinclair at v.sinclair@cornwall-insight.com
To link to our website, please use: https://www.cornwall-insight.com/
About the Cornwall Insight Group
Cornwall Insight is the pre-eminent provider of research, analysis, consulting and training to businesses and stakeholders engaged in the Australian, Great British, and Irish energy markets. To support our customers, we leverage a powerful combination of analytical capability, a detailed appreciation of regulation codes and policy frameworks, and a practical understanding of how markets function.
