Later this month the NI Science Festival returns to our screens in a new digital format and this year features an insider’s look at the science behind Jubilee Farm, Northern Ireland’s first community-owned farm, as well as wider programme focusing on local wildlife, biodiversity and sustainability.
Filmed exclusively for the 2021 NI Science Festival, a five-part mini-series featuring Dr Jonny Hanson and Jubilee Farm will be broadcast during the festival, giving viewers a behind-the-scenes look at its environmental and agricultural work.
Dr Jonny Hanson is the founder and director of Jubilee, the cooperative that works within communities in Larne and the surrounding areas and which owns and operates Jubilee Farm.
Set on 13.5 acres of fields, woodland and river frontage, Jubliee Farm offers an ideal for families, churches, schools, and other groups to reconnect with food, farming and nature.
From camera-trapping wildlife to breeding the perfect pig, and from composting to growing vegetables, the five-part series will showcase how Jubilee put ecology, agricultural ecology and human ecology into practice.
An Associate of the Snow Leopard Conservancy, a leading international snow leopard conservation NGO, and is a Trustee of the Nyika-Vwaza Trust, a UK conservation charity active in northern Malawi, Johnny will also discuss the case for and against large predator reintroductions to Ireland as part of the festival.
In his talk, Wolves, Lynxes & Bears, Oh My! (February 19), Johnny offers an electrifying yet balanced look at the issue of large predator reintroductions to rewild landscapes, one of the most novel yet controversial conservation issues of our time.
Covering both history and natural history, Jonny explores the varied dimensions, feasibility and ethics of reintroducing wolves, lynxes and brown bears to the island of Ireland, assessing the case for and the case against.
Conservation is also the focus for an upcoming event in partnership with RSPB NI.
Inspired by the BBC’s popular Winterwatch series, Saving Species & Combatting Climate Change (February 27), will take viewers on an online adventure around Northern Ireland to explore some of our most beautiful and wildlife rich landscapes, from peatlands at Lough Neagh to farmland on the shores of Strangford Lough.
Hosted live by youth climate activist Dakota Reid and RSPB NI’s Jonny Bell and Claire Barnett, viewers will learn more about how these special places and native species are under threat, and about the innovative nature-based solutions that have been put in place to protect them through a series of special reports from leading conservation and climate experts.
NI Science Festival is supported by the Department for the Economy, Belfast City Council, Queen’s University Belfast, Ulster University, Derry City & Strabane District Council, Matrix, Department of Communities, British Council Northern Ireland, Open University NI, Innovate UK, Halifax Foundation for Northern Ireland, and Film Hub NI.
n The 2021 NI Science Festival runs from February 15-28. For more information about NI Science Festival events and bookings, visit nisciencefestival.com
n Keep up to date with the festival on social media via Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
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