Burrenbeo Trust is pleased to welcome the launch today, October 22nd, of ReFarm, a new national initiative aimed at making farming for nature sustainable and scalable, while providing businesses with an opportunity to fund nature-positive actions on Irish farms in a way that can be reported on under new EU sustainability reporting directives.
Under ReFarm, Burrenbeo Trust will partner with researchers at Trinity College Dublin and several impact investors, as well as a number of farmers – in the Burren, and nationally through Burrenbeo’s Farming for Nature network. These farmers will carry out nature-positive actions, building on learnings from Burrenbeo’s ‘Hare’s Corner’ project whereby landowners receive ‘hassle-free’ support to act for nature. The impact of these actions, and the feedback from these farmers, will inform research outcomes.
ReFarm has already started to fund nature-positive actions on Irish farms – focussing initially on the creation of wildlife ponds – and will continue to do so over the five-year period of the project. More information will become available over the coming months at www.refarm.ie.
ReFarm was established by Brendan Dunford of Burrenbeo Trust, and Anke Heydenreich, an impact investor. The research programme – to examine long-term funding structures for businesses to invest in nature-positive actions on Irish farms – will be led by Professor Jane Stout, School of Natural Sciences, and Professor Martha O’Hagan, School of Business at Trinity College, and is being supported by the SFI Bioeconomy research centre BiOrbic.
ReFarm has raised over €1 mil to fund nature-positive actions on Irish farms and to fund a research programme, and is grateful to the following seed funders:
- RWE Ireland
- John Paul Construction
- CIE Tour Operators
- Community Foundation Ireland
- Trinity Business School
Brigid Barry, manager of Farming For Nature says “For our initiative to make a wider impact, we need to support farmers that already farm for nature or those that wish to do more for their wildlife and habitats but can’t afford to take the land out of production. We are delighted to be part of this project that is supporting action on the ground, which is key if we are to make a real difference into the future.”
Brendan Dunford commented, “If we are to address Ireland’s biodiversity and climate crises, then our farmers are key. We know this from our work in the Burren and from our experience of working with our Farming for Nature Ambassadors. But we can’t rely on traditional models of public funding alone to support this work and so we feel Project ReFarm has the potential to be a game-changer in terms of connecting private capital with farmers to invest in nature. We’re particularly delighted to launch this project at the start of ‘Winterage Week’ as it reflects Burrenbeo’s commitment to High Nature Value farming and to taking practical, positive actions for nature”.