Seeing wind farms as pockets of communities where nature thrives

Ireland’s Biodiversity – Low but Unique and Beautiful 

Ireland has historically low diversity of flora and fauna compared to continental Europe, due to our geographic isolation and glacial history and in more recent history loss of biodiversity can be attributed to human activity, such as mismanagement, bad practices, and destruction of habitats and species. However, the habitats that house our flora and fauna are unique and thus of much international importance. There are approximately 31,000 species in Ireland and only 10 percent of these are ‘familiar’ plants, birds, and mammals. This makes our biodiversity that much more important to protect.  

Hare’s Corner – Taking the Awkward and Making it Rich with Life 

An initiative run by the Irish landscape charity, Burrenbeo Trust supports landowners in creating small areas of wildlife and biodiversity throughout communities. Hare’s Corner have historically been used to describe awkward portions of land which are unsuitable for farming and left to nature and the hare. Burrenbeo Trust has been working to make these Hare’s Corner into thriving mini ecosystems. From wildlife ponds, mini-native woodlands, heritage mini orchards, to peatland plans; the Burrenbeo Trust has created the Hares Corners initiative to create a no cost and minimal hassle way for landowners to work towards a more biodiverse future. This initiative is active in Mayo, Galway, Leitrim, and Meath and has been deemed a massive success with a total of 671 applications so far.  

Wind Farms and Biodiversity 

Several of those applications have come from wind farms! Since wind turbines take up very little land, there is a great opportunity for wind farm developers to promote and encourage more biodiversity on their sites – and several of our members are already part of the Hare’s Corners initiative which does just that such as Greencoat, Future Energy Ireland, and Brightwind. Special mention to Brightwind who have donated €57,000 via its community benefit funds to help scale this project nationally. 

Expanding towards a Biodiverse Future 

Hare’s Corner is on a mission to bring Ireland into a more biodiverse future. Currently the demand for their projects are at least 3 times as high as what Burrenbeo Trust has the funds to supply.  

The Hare’s Corner initiative is always looking to expand and if you or your company would be interested in the initiative being rolled out to a county where you operate, get in touch! If you’re interested in hearing more about their work and exploring ways to partner with them to support little corners of nature, contact [email protected] or [email protected] to discuss.  

 It is so helpful for the Burrenbeo trust to get a grip on potential partners or support when they look to expand this amazing work!  

That is why Wind Energy Ireland supports the Hares Corners initiative and seeks to spread the word about the actions that its members can take.