What is Biodiversity?

Biodiversity (short for biological diversity), means the variety of life; the wide range of living things in the world. It includes all kinds of plants and animals in all kinds of environments, including towns and cities. Biodiversity includes the interactions of and inter-dependency that living things have on each other and on their habitat. There is a lot of biodiversity in Dublin City; we just have to look for it.

What can we do to protect biodiversity in Dublin?

1. Hold onto your trees and hedges. If you need to prune them back wait until after the summer months when the chicks have fledged and are out of their nests.
2. Keep it natural. Avoid spraying herbicides as this kills off all kinds of lovely wild flowers that butterfly and moth larvae depend on for survival. Plant flowers and shrubs that produce lots of nectar and berries which birds and insects love to eat e.g. hawthorn, marjoram, evening primrose, nasturtiums and lavender. Planting these in patches here and there is even better and having differences in plant structures, height, density and species composition are important
3. Add some animal furniture! Create a log pile in the corner of your garden for hibernating hedgehogs. Put bat and bird boxes high up on the house wall (near the eaves) and you might be lucky enough to get some new residents! And don’t forget to put up some bird feeders and water dishes out in winter too.