All Island Civil Society Forum on the Environment, Session 2

Northern Ireland Environment Link (NIEL) and the Irish Environmental Network (IEN), the membership organisations for the environmental charity sectors, are delighted to have received funding from the Government of Ireland Shared Island Civic Society Fund to develop and deliver a series of five facilitated thematic dialogues and a final in-person networking forum between January and September 2024.

The main purpose of this project is to promote and deepen cooperation and dialogue between Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland ENGOs and environmental civil society groups in order that the sector be equipped to fully engage with, and respond to, the new environmental regulatory and governance context post-Brexit.

Following on from a very successful first session with over 60 people attending and which considered why deeper dialogue and cooperation between environmental organisations in Ireland and Northern Ireland is necessary and discussed with participants the key issues, this second session will look at Biodiversity. This will be a participative event with those attending working together in smaller groups to reflect on presentations made and to discuss and consider the actions that ENGOs and civil society environment groups need to take to support biodiversity across the island

At this second session, Professor Mark Emmerson from Queen’s University Belfast will set the context with an input ion Ireland’s Biodiversity. Mark is an ecologist practising across marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems, Vice President of the British Ecological Society, Vice President of the Irish Ecological Association, Co-Chair of the All-Island Climate and Biodiversity Research Network.

Following Mark we will have inputs from IEN and NIEL staff considering policy, strategy and action being taken to support biodiversity north and south.

Fintan Kelly is Agriculture Policy Officer with IEN and specialises in Environmental Policy, Advocacy and Planning.

Malachy Campbell, is a Senior Policy Officer wth NIEL

This event is taking place online using Zoom and the event link will be issued to registered participants on Thursday 11 April.

We anticipate up to 60 participants at this event and in the event of less than 30 registering to attend will consider rescheduling

Nigel McKinney of Spellack Consulting has been appointed to facilitate these dialogues and he can be contacted by e- mail, nigel@spellackconsulting.com with any questions

Location: Online

Tickets are free and can be reserved online.