Northern Ireland Environment Link (NIEL) and the Irish Environmental Network (IEN) are delighted to have received funding from the Government of Ireland Shared Island Civic Society Fund to develop and deliver a series of five facilitated thematic dialogues and a final in-person networking forum between January and September 2024.
The main purpose of this project is to promote and deepen cooperation and dialogue between Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland eNGOs and environmental civil society groups so that the sector is equipped to fully engage with, and respond to, the new environmental regulatory and governance context post-Brexit.
Each of the 5 dialogues, will be held online to maximise access. The initial dialogue will give an introduction to the post-Brexit environment and the following four will explore a specific environmental challenge. The theme of the environmental challenge will be up to you.
The participants will discuss possible solutions and policy responses that they believe are appropriate for introducing/implementing/exploring on an all-island basis or on both sides of the border. These solutions/policy responses will be recorded by the organisers and presented at a final in-person networking event.
The first dialogue will take place online using Zoom on Wednesday 14 February from 1030am until 1pm and you can register for that here. The Zoom link will be issued to registered participants in advance of the session.
Following this, dialogues will take place monthly, concluding in June, with the final networking event scheduled for mid/late September.
This first session will set the context for the rest of the series – Dr Lisa Whitten (QUB) will give an expert overview of the environmental regulatory context post-Brexit. We will follow this with a discussion on why deeper dialogue and cooperation between environmental organisations in Ireland and Northern Ireland is necessary and discussing with participants what you think is important and what thematic areas might be prioritised.
To help us with our planning we would be grateful if you could respond to the short survey available through the link below. It will take approximately 5 minutes to complete.
We hope you or other organisation representatives can participate and please circulate this invitation to other relevant organisations and people that you think might be interested. There is no limit to the number of people per organisation that can attend.
Survey link All Island Civil Society Forum on the Environment Survey
