Celebrating our biodiversity

The National Trust is the largest single private landowner in Northern Ireland. Established in Northern Ireland in 1936, the charity now owns and manages around 12,000 hectares (46 square miles) of countryside and 200 kilometres of the local coastline.

As well as providing public access to some of the region's most scenic coastal and countryside sites, these sites are also home to a rich array of plants, birds, insects and animals. ‘Biodiversity’ is the name given to the total variety of all these living things, including people, and the habitats in which they all live. In the past decade or so, the importance of biodiversity has been brought into sharper focus by the alarming rate of loss of habitats and species world wide. The conservation of biological diversity is central to the principle of sustainable development, which the National Trust wholly embraces on all its sites.

In 2004 the National Trust in Northern Ireland launched its Biodiversity Strategy for 2004-2009 (download PDF summary). This gathers together a summary of our existing wide-ranging management activities, and also sets out an ambitious program for the next five years, in which many exciting and imaginative new initiatives are proposed.

Managing biodiversity

As a major environmental and conservation charity the National Trust is committed to ensuring that the biodiversity of its properties is conserved and enhanced. Since its foundation the Trust has been actively involved in managing the rich biological diversity of the special places in its ownership.

Right across Northern Ireland, from the woodland of Crom to the cliffs of the Giant's Causeway, the Trust manages sites of exceptionally high nature conservation and biodiversity value. Many of these sites have international, European or national designations because of their special significance.

The National Trust was the first organisation in the UK with a statutory requirement to conserve wildlife and geological features in the countryside - the "permanent preservation for the benefit of the nation of lands and tenements (including buildings) of beauty or scientific interest and as regards lands for the preservation... of their natural aspect features and animal and plant life" (National Trust Act 1907).

An important aid to achieving these goals is the National Trust's unique power to conserve land forever. The National Trust Acts enable the charity to declare land inalienable. Inalienable land must be conserved in perpetuity and cannot be voluntarily sold or mortgaged. Some of Northern Ireland's most scenic landscapes and important wildlife sites are protected in this way.

Projects

There have been many significant nature conservation management projects within the Trust in Northern Ireland, including introducing pioneering practices on many sites. Our continuing nature conservation activities include carrying out detailed biological surveys, managing for habitats and species, habitat restoration, and providing access to, promoting and interpreting our sites.

The Bat Conservation Project and the Biodiversity Data Management Project are examples of current ongoing projects in Northern Ireland.