Kildare Tidy Towns urged to participate in outdoor climate and biodiversity workshop

Kildare Tidy Towns and other Kildare-based community groups have been urged to participate in an upcoming outdoor climate and biodiversity workshop.

The call comes after Food Forests Ireland (FFI) recently announced the national rollout of its award-winning Community Food Forest Programme, bringing its outdoor climate and biodiversity education initiative to communities along the Royal Canal Greenway, which spans 130 kilometres throughout counties Kildare, Meath, Westmeath and Longford.

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According to the organisers, following the recent success of its pilot Community Food Forest Programme in Westport and the expansion along the Great Western Greenway, FFI is now collaborating with both TU Dublin Blanchardstown and Global Action Plan Ireland in order to establish its first site on the Royal Canal Greenway.

FFI is also encouraging Tidy Towns groups and other local community organisations along the Royal Canal Greenway to register their interest in being part of Ireland's growing network of community food forests.

Furthermore, FFI said that those interested in attending the upcoming workshop should express their interest directly via the official FFI contact page.

‘A CATALYST’

Caithriona McCarthy, Programme Director, Food Forests Ireland, says: "The success of our Great Western Greenway pilot has shown what communities can achieve when they come together around food, biodiversity, and education.

“Our initiative is about utilising existing greenways as a catalyst for environmental education and climate action.

“We want to empower young people and adults alike to move from passive consumers to proactive stewards of the land, building local food resilience independent of global energy disruptions.”

Caithriona aded: “We provide the workshop and education to get the food forest up and running, then participating groups can manage and maintain [it] for generations to come.”

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WHAT TO EXPECT

The organisers also emphasised that the workshop will help attendees to:

• See the award-winning pilot ecosystem to observe multi-layered food forestry in action
• Discover more about how the food forests are small and easy to maintain and manage by the participating groups
• Participate in hands-on workshops focused on (biodiversity mapping), agroforestry frameworks, and systems thinking
• Collaborate directly with FFI expert coordinators to begin to map out tailored, edible landscape designs for their local areas
• Express their interest directly via Food Forests Ireland Contact Page

FFI’s Food Forest Workshop will take place in Westport, County Mayo on Saturday, July 25, 2026.

It will begin at 11.45am and conclude at 4.15pm.

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