Pollinator-friendly management of sports clubs

The All-Ireland Pollinator Plan has developed a guideline for the pollinator-friendly management of sports clubs.

With approximately 15,000 clubs across the island of Ireland, sports clubs can play a vital role in conservation of our biodiversity if managed in a pollinator-friendly way. Introducing pollinator-friendly management across sports clubs would create an entire network of safe places for bees and other insects across the landscape. The positive impact this could have would be enormous.

This guide is aimed at those who have responsibility for managing sports clubs and their surroundings.  It explains five main ways to help pollinators. All actions are evidence-based (scientific studies show these actions have a positive impact on pollinators.) Pollinators need food, shelter and safety and many of the actions we can take to help provide this are very simple, cost-effective, and often free. 

Download Pollinator friendly management of Sports Clubs guidelines

 

If you’re already taking pollinator-friendly actions at your club, add your actions to the online mapping system, Actions for Pollinators.

 

GAA Green Clubs Programme

The National Biodiversity Data Centre is delighted to be working with the GAA on the development of their Green Clubs toolkit.

The Green Clubs Programme is structured around five main thematic areas: Energy, Water, Waste, Biodiversity, and Travel & Transport. 

The toolkit aims to provide simple actions for clubs under these five areas. The National Biodiversity Data Centre are the expert partner on biodiversity, and have helped develop this part of the toolkit, which launched in December 2022. 

 

In this video, Joan Crawford, Green Club Coordinator for Mullingar Shamrocks GAA club, talks about the positive impact of developing a biodiversity walking route around the Westmeath club’s grounds.

 

Read more about how Mullingar Shamrocks are helping biodiversity in this blog: 

Mullingar Shamrocks GAA: Green by Emblem, Green by Nature