The partnership of the “Climate Champions” project welcomes the New Year with another good practice of local initiatives aiming at preserving biodiversity and reversing climate change, this time from Ireland!
The “Edible Landscape Project” encourages behavioral change in how and what we eat, by giving communities the power to make food consumption and purchasing choices that promote our own health, the health of our communities and the health of our planet. Activities in our food system are massive contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss. From producing food, transporting it, packing it and discarding it in landfills, reducing inefficiencies in our food system can have massive gains in our fight against climate change.
The “Edible Landscape Project” is a social enterprise run by community volunteers and a board of directors. They come from a variety of backgrounds, from horticulture and teaching to engineering and medicine. This amalgamation of skills allows the “Edible Landscape Project” to take a holistic approach to everything they do.
Their community-focused project influence people of all ages, from primary school children with their food forest education project to women in the 70s and 80s through their community garden volunteers. It was founded in 2012 and was started as a community-growing initiative along the western greenway in Co. Mayo, Ireland. The project aimed to create an edible landscape along the route through the hosting of edible planting workshops with local community groups. The original “food forest” is located at the Quay Community Centre where volunteers and participants learn the skills of growing food in a climate-smart way.
Website link for the good practice: https://ediblelandscape.ie/