News & Updates
Connecting with communities of Iveragh Peninsula
During January and February a project called LIVE Operation is inviting residents in the Iveragh peninsula, or anyone with good local knowledge of the area to share with them how they feel about the natural environment along the Iveragh Peninsula. You can fill out this short survey which will be open until mid-February.
The LIVE (Llŷn IVeragh Eco-museums) Operation is a collaboration between Welsh and Irish community organisations, together with academic departments and local governments. It aims to enable coastal communities to promote their natural and cultural assets, creating opportunities for sustainable tourism, especially outside of the traditional peak tourist seasons.
The survey asks those living in the area to respond to simple questions about the local landscape and wildlife, with maps to help pinpoint special areas of interest. The project partners will use this information to create engaging maps that highlight the natural features and species idenitfied as important to the local communities. The information gathered will also help inform the development of environmental and educational programmes.
The survey is completely anonymous and takes an average of 20 minutes to complete and will be open until mid February.
In order to facilitate the whole community, the Live Operation have been offering a number of supports to facilitate as many voices from across the community as possible.
- Hard copies of the survey are available on request.
- For local community groups and schools who may have an interest in collectively carrying out this survey as a group activity, LIVE can provide a virtual workshop, a walkthrough of the survey, explaining the process, the questions, and how they will use it in their research.
- Going forward they will share updates on social media. You can find them on Twitter @ecomuseumslive, Instagram @ecomusuemslive or Facebook @ecomuseumslive.
LIVE makes use of a public participation geographic information system (PPGIS) as a mapping process. This brings academic practices of GIS mapping to a local level, promoting more hands-on collaborative knowledge exchange and production.
The project uses the Ecomuseum model of co-operative marketing to create a powerful suite of digital and non-digital resources for eco and educational tourism. These resources will be underpinned by knowledge of the local environments of the Llŷn Peninsula in Gwynedd and the Iveragh Peninsula in Kerry and draws on the success of the already established #Ecoamgueddfa on the Llŷn Peninsula.
Led by the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences in UCC, the project supports a network of community organisations, academic partners and local governments in Kerry, Ireland and Gwynedd, Wales.
More information can be found at https://www.ecomuseumlive.eu/resources.
For more on this story contact:
The survey is being conducted by Soli Levi, a LIVE researcher, through School of BEES, University College Cork. If you have any questions relating to the survey, you can contact Soli at slevi@ucc.ie.
For all other enquiries, please contact us at live@ucc.ie or visit our website at www.ecomuseumlive.ie.
The project is co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Ireland Wales Cooperation Programme.
