Biodiversity
Nurture and Grow Programme | Grow Your Own | Green Flag | Wildlife Cameras

Queen's University Belfast are delighted that the ‘Nurture and Grow Programme: Connecting People Through Nature’ was selected as the winner within the Green Gown Awards Student Engagement Category.
Green Gown Award WinnerNurture and Grow Programme
Queen’s University staff, students and residents from the local community have joined forces in an effort to enhance the range of habitats within Queen’s community, ensuring South Belfast is providing a home for wildlife and enabling our local community to pull together and take action for climate change. As part of our application to The Green Gown Awards, a video was created to showcase the range of projects involved: Elms Allotment, Lennoxvale Tree Nursery, Medicinal Garden, Alleyway Transformation Project, DKB Orchard and Bio: Diverse City.

Queen's staff and students are continuing to think green whilst self-isolating! The QUB community have been challenged to take part in a Grow Your Own (GYO) competition, and the responses have been very impressive.
Lockdown provides you with the opportunity to get outside, and start growing your own fruit and vegetables.

Queen's University Belfast has been awarded a prestigious Green Flag Award in the 2019 Green Flag Awards – becoming the first university in Northern Ireland to be recognised by the scheme. Hosted at Queen's this year on Tuesday 23 July 2019, the Green Flag Awards are judged annually by a panel of experts who volunteer their time to assess the management plans and the applicant sites through a rigorous judging process.
The Green Flag Award is the benchmark national standard for parks and green spaces in the UK. It was first launched in 1996 to recognise and reward the best green spaces in the country and is an internationally recognised certification for environmental quality management for parks and open spaces. Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, an environmental charity, runs the scheme in Northern Ireland.
The University achieved Green Flag status for its Lanyon site by having a site management plan in place and ensuring compliance with a range of strict criteria including horticultural standards, cleanliness, environmental management, biodiversity, community involvement, and safety standards.
Queen's also received its first Green Heritage Award for the Lanyon site in recognition of the site's celebration and promotion of unique elements of its heritage. Paul Wallace, Head Gardener in the University's Grounds and Gardens team, also achieved special recognition at the awards ceremony, where he was awarded 'Employee of the Year'.
For more on this, click here.

A number of Staff and Student initiatives, funded via the Green Fund, are ensuring Queen's Campus is providing a range of species with 'homes'.
Queen’s University aims to be a world leader in environmental and sustainable activities by encouraging and supporting environmental behaviour change amongst staff and students.
To achieve this, raising awareness of their local environment is a priority. Queen's Wildlife Camera project, undertaken by the Porters, aims to engage and educate staff, students, and the local community about the importance of ‘green’ spaces within urban environments.
So far a range of species have been spotted! Can you identify any in the video?