Irish ELCN project partner Brendan Dunford of the Burren Programme was featured in The Guardian. 'Has rewarding positive environmental impact revitalised an area of West Ireland? And is this a solution to the country's acute nature crisis?' asks the article.
 

The article mentions that Brendan arrived in the Burren in 1999 to do research for his PhD on farming. He soon recognised the changes that were exerting negative pressures on the landscape. The full article can be found here, and explains in detail how Brendan transformed the pressured land by means of introducing results-based agri-environment payment schemes and enhancing the relationships of 328 local farmers with their fields and nature. The Burren are in great shape, and very rich in biodiversity. Research by Dr. Dara Stanley of the University College Dublin has concluded that Brendan's approach is working. The Guardian article concludes that "The Burren could serve as a regional template for farming of the future", and that the new EU Farm to Fork Strategy that is part of the EU Green Deal is "rooted in the kind of ecological-based farming systems that Dunford's model has pioneered."

 

Photo credit: Burrenbeo Trust