Landscapes NI is the network of all our designated and iconic landscapes in Northern Ireland and members are the organisation who seek to help manage these amazing places.

The vision of Landscapes NI is ““Cherished landscapes benefiting people and nature in Northern Ireland.”

Training courses

Throughout 2025 we have continued to run a series of training courses for Landscapes NI members’ staff and other partners. This year we ran nine separate courses with a total 98 people booked on to these courses. The courses have been:

1. Introduction to GIS Training
2. Pond restoration training
3. Introduction to GPS survey techniques (2 courses)
4. Leave No Trace Awareness Course
5. ESRI GIS training course
6. Well-being in the outdoors course
7. Wildflower seed collection course
8. Geology training course

A very short survey was sent to participants immediately afterwards to try and capture their feedback. Participants were asked to rank a number of factors from 0 – 10 (whereby 0 = not at all and 10 = extremely). We have had a 54% response rate to the survey.

The feedback has been extremely positive with participants ranking the enjoyment, learning and relevance of the training on average above 9 out of 10. There is also a lot of feedback from participants on the benefits of peer learning and networking.

One of the most exciting pieces of work that we are doing this year is in relation to youth opportunities. Six member organisations have their youth ranger/ambassador programmes up and running and the range fo activities that they have been undertaking has been significant from first aid to bird box building and from hedge laying to mountain biking.

Each area was then asked to nominate 2 people to represent them on the Landscapes NI youth forum / panel and the inaugural meeting for this took place on Saturday 8^th November at Lough Neagh Discovery Centre. A fantastic day was had by all whereby everyone really engaged in the programme of team building activities, environmental awareness games and activities and a wonderful woodland walk to the bird hides in Oxford Island. We were delighted to be joined on the day by Jessica Micklem-Kolenić who is the Programme Manager for Youth, Sport and Communications within the EUROPARC Federation based in Germany. The EUROPARC Federation is the network for Europe’s natural and cultural heritage and the collective voice for all nature and landscape areas. Jessica co-ordinates all the EUROPARC youth programmes.

These young people were empowered to develop the group and the future programme for themselves. One of the first tasks that they undertook was to create a code of conduct / contract. They were split into two groups and developed some great thinking on how we will all behave and interact with each other.

They also came up with a new name for the group which is Landscapes Youth NI. Our next meeting is planned for 7^th February and will be a visit to Binevenagh Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the staff from that area will help to facilitate the day.

 

Conference

On Tuesday 11^th November 2025, 72 participants gathered at the Silverbirch hotel in Omagh for the second annual Landscapes NI conference. The conference focused in on two critical components of developing and managing nature recovery (including helping to deliver on 30 x 30) aligned with the need we have for nature connection that boosts our health systems.

The Minister had planned to join us for the event but unfortunately other executive priorities meant that he was unable to do so. However, he provided a video message in which he reiterated that the Executive Environment Improvement Plan commits to a review of policy and legislation on landscapes, outdoor recreation and access to nature.

There were 4 keynote speakers at the event on 4 key topics for Landscapes NI members:

• Collaboration and Connection in the Cairngorms.
• The Youth Voice in Our Landscapes
• Connecting with Nature to benefit Health and Wellbeing
• Nature recovery – a species perspective

The keynotes were followed by 4 workshops in the afternoon on species recovery, green finance, trees in the landscape and social value.

As with all Landscapes NI projects the carbon impact of the conference was measured with some analysis on how modes of transport impact on this. The majority of the impact was from the travel to get to the venue. The total carbon footprint from the event was 10,306kg CO₂e which equated to 31.6 kg CO₂e on average per person.

Delegates were also asked to rank out of 10 (with 10 being the best) how valuable and enjoyable they found the conference. There were only two delegates who scored anything below 7 and 35% of delegates scored elements with a maximum of “10”

 

 

 

Mike McClure

Landscapes NI Development Manager

 

This work has been made possible through the kind support and funding from the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and Action Renewables.