Belfast’s Buzzing! ~ People & Pollinators in Belfast

What will the project do?

This two year Buglife B-Lines project will focus on increasing habitat for pollinators across various areas within Belfast B-Line as well as encouraging better land management for pollinators within the area.  Working closely alongside Belfast City Council, the National Trust and other landowners, Belfast’s Buzzing! will use innovative techniques to restore 15 hectares of wildflower habitat in Belfast and support landowners to create 5-10 hectares of wildflower habitat along Belfast B-Lines.

Through this project we will work with communities and partners scattered along the B-Line to increase flower-rich habitat for pollinating insects; creating habitat corridors and stepping-stones which will enable them to freely disperse and re-colonise the area and surrounding landscape.

A particular focus will be several parks including Clement Wilson, Lisnabreeny & Minnowburn and many other potential sites across Belfast such as Ballygomartin, Connswater and Ormeau Park.

Belfast’s Buzzing! will support the recovery of the Near Threatened Small Blue Butterfly (Cupido minimus), the Vulnerable Buffish Mining Bee (Andrena nigroaenea) and the Endangered Red-tailed Cuckoo-bee (Bombus (P.) rupestris) whilst helping to restore populations of many other insects that are essential for pollinating our crops and wildflowers.

During the two year Belfast’s Buzzing! project we will carry out community engagement events and school education sessions; we also hope to be able to offer:

• training in pollinator identification and surveying techniques including Flower-Insect-Timed-Counts (UK PoMS FIT) method;
• habitat management advice sessions for land holders and community groups;
• bee bank development;
• and meadow development.

How can you get involved?

Communities can get involved through a series of opportunities including volunteering, habitat creation events, training workshops and “Get Close to Nature” walks.

Information, advice and support is also available to landowners who would like to know more about the project, how they can be involved and how to improve their land for pollinators.

We will be seeking volunteers to:

• help out at habitat creation events, including supporting the planning and organising of events.
• assist with monitoring habitat creation works at sites for progress and
• monitoring of sites for pollinators.

You can also get involved in recording schemes, such as, 10-minute FIT counts from the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan and upload individual records to i-Record.

For more information on how to get involved in our “Belfast’s Buzzing ~ People & Pollinators in Belfast” project please contact Hannah Fullerton (Conservation Officer – Northern Ireland) at [email protected]