2022 CO-OPERATION PROJECT

In 2022 the Wild Work co-operation project expanded Wild Work’s with our Biodiversity Training Programme. This innovative co-operation project expanded Wild Work’s reach from South and West Cork into Cavan and West Limerick thanks to a pilot-partnership with Cavan County Local Development and West Limerick Resources, supported through the LEADER Programme.

Designed by expert ecologists, the Wild Work Biodiversity Training Programme aimed to teach participants about biodiversity in Ireland in a local context, and help them understand how the Wild Work Biodiversity Framework can support communities to help people, help nature, help people. The programme integrated the use of innovative virtual and augmented technologies with practical outdoor classroom and on-line learning modules.

Click to watch Wild Work and partners discuss the project at the 2023 National Ploughing Championships

What The Training Involved

The training was delivered over six core modules, in 20 locations in South Cork, West Cork, Cavan and West Limerick, with almost 600+ participants. It was open to individuals, community and voluntary groups, farmers, teachers, pupils and parents, the business community and managers of public amenities.

These 6 modules are:

The history of biodiversity in the Irish landscape
The Wild Work philosophy and ethos
The importance of biodiversity for well-being
Biodiversity-friendly habitat management practices for meadows, woodlands and streams
The role of Citizen Science monitoring
How the Wild Work Framework will function to support biodiversity action into the future

As well as these modules, 16 public lands project sessions were delivered across South Cork, West Cork, Limerick and Cavan. The aim of these sessions were to facilitate discussion, engagement and potential collaboration between community members and organisations and local public authority/ land owners/local state agency and bringing these groups together to see how they can further share learning regarding land management, and to learn about each other’s capacity.

Thematic training projects were also delivered in each area. These were:

Citizen Science training to Transition Year students in West Cork
Wellness Sessions for Businesses in South Cork
Development of Biodiversity Corridors in West Limerick
Seed Saving training in Cavan

The Project Resources

A number of resources have also been developed as part of the project including:

The Wild Work Online Toolkit containing an exciting range of e-learning activities to support in person training. A Junior Wild Workers online training programme will also be available for schools and youth groups.
A series of videos highlighting aspects of the training programme
A Virtual Reality experience delivering a series of hotspots containing information relating to the Wild Work training programme in the form of images, video and audio content
Wild Work Best Practice Guidelines for the Management of Walking Trails
100 Actions for Nature

Wild Work Partners

The three project partners are Local Development Companies which promote and enable Rural Development and Social Inclusion in the areas in which they operate. This includes a range of local and community development programmes including LEADER 2014-2020, the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme, the Rural Social Scheme, TUS, PEIL 2014-2020 and others.

All three Local Development Companies deliver LEADER as Implementing Partners for the Local Action Groups (LAGs) in South and West Cork, Cavan, and Limerick in conjunction with the Local Community Development Committees (LCDCs) and Cork County Council, Cavan County Council, and Limerick City and County Council.