Meath Biodiversity Programme for Post Primary Schools
Following a successful first year of the Meath Biodiversity Detectives education
programme with primary schools in 2023 Meath County Council are delighted to
announce the programme is now being offered to post primary schools in Co. Meath
What does this initiative offer?
Funded by Meath County Council and the Department of Housing Local Government and Heritage
through the Local Biodiversity Action Fund and in partnership with the Irish Peatland Conservation
Council thirty-two post primary schools can avail of a free biodiversity detectives resource kit. In
addition twenty schools that receive a free biodiversity detectives resource kit will also be offered a
complimentary biodiversity visit to their school. A specialist guide will take students on a journey of
discovery of habitats and biodiversity and work with the students to record and submit records for
their school grounds to the National Biodiversity Data Centre.
What is biodiversity and what can we do to help it?
Biodiversity or ‘biological diversity’, is the variety of all life on earth in all its forms and all its
interactions. Biodiversity includes the worms in the soil and the birds in the sky, the trees in our parks
and the wildflowers in your garden. It also includes us! Around 31,000 species are known to occur in
Ireland, yet the conservation status of only about 10% of these has been assessed. This means we
have a fundamental knowledge gap in how biodiversity is changing in Ireland.
Biodiversity provides many services to our communities, for example, all plants absorb carbon
dioxide, as they photosynthesise to make their own food, and act as nature’s air filters; while
bumblebees and hoverflies are pollinators, completing an essential task to ensure our food grows.
Habitat loss, invasive species, over-exploitation, pollution and climate change have however all been
identified as drivers of biodiversity loss; but is there anything we can do? For young people in our
communities the first step is to learn about the diversity of living things all around us, and Meath
Biodiversity Detectives resource kit is here to help.
Knowing what biodiversity we have in our school grounds we can then consider steps to support and
enhance it.
How to get involved?
If your post primary school would be interested in having one of the thirty two free biodiversity
resource kits delivered to your school, or indeed interested in getting involved in one of the twenty
free biodiversity visits, express your interest by e-mailing