Nature and biodiversity

Nature and biodiversity

From our parks and pavements to our gardens and green roofs, the rich mosaic of green, blue, brown, and grey spaces in Belfast creates a vibrant ecosystem. How we interact with nature impacts the quality of life in our city. Bees and butterflies support our food supply, trees clean our air and birds our skies. Boosting biodiversity in Belfast makes the city a better place to live. 

Protecting Belfast's wildlife

By safeguarding wildlife-rich spaces and shielding the city from climate change challenges, we are committed to supporting biodiversity and nature in Belfast. This is at the heart of being a green city.

From the Irish hare in Belfast hills to black guillemots on the banks of the River Lagan, we want native species to thrive in our unique landscape of urban and coastal habitats. 

Trees

As well as providing shade and shelter, trees purify the air and are brilliant for biodiversity. A single tree can be a home to hundreds of species. Trees also store water and provide a food source for local ecosystems.

Trees remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it in their trunks, stems, leaves and roots and soil. Overall, trees provide £16 million in public value to Belfast city every year. 

We are working with city partners to invest in the future of trees through our tree strategy.

Belfast Tree Strategy

We have produced the Belfast Tree Strategy to help manage and improve the city's tree-scape, and to provide a resilient, diverse urban forest for future generations.

The strategy has 37 targets, priorities and actions built around three key themes:

• Trees and forest structure
• Community framework
• Sustainable resource Management Approach

Our strategy also includes key aspects of what we want to do:

• Protect existing tree cover within the city.
• Promote and plant new trees at suitable locations to enhance future amenity value.
• Preserve and retain trees of high quality and public visual amenity 

You can read the Belfast Tree Strategy online.

Wildflowers

Wildflowers support insects including butterflies, bumblebees and hoverflies, which then feed mammals and birds. Working in partnership, we're aiming to develop a network of flower-rich areas of all shapes and sizes throughout the city. From larger parks and open spaces to your garden or even a window box, we can all do something to help our declining wildflowers and the species that rely on them.

Wildflower sites across Belfast

Pollinators

We work to help pollinators such as bumblebees, hoverflies, moths, butterflies and beetles to thrive in our city. Our projects have included Bee-licious and Hedgerow Hopes. For Bee-licious, we worked with local communities to restore networks of semi-natural habitats where pollinators can find food and shelter. This project was developed with eight councils across Northern Ireland.

Belfast’s Buzzing was a partnership project with BugLife and the National Trust which supported the recovery of Northern Ireland’s bees and other pollinating insects by restoring wildflower meadows and grasslands across Belfast.

The loss of natural and semi-natural habitats has been a key driver in pollinator declines. We own and manage several significant sites including Cave Hill, Barnett's Demesne and Lagan Meadows. We’ve signed up to the All-Ireland Pollinator plan and agreed to take actions to support pollinators on our land. 

City Cemetery biodiversity

A key part of the City Cemetery Heritage Project is enhancing the natural heritage on site. The project is focussed on connecting habitats within the cemetery and to the Belfast Hills. 

We restored species rich meadows on site and used traditional scything skills to manage these.  We’ve provided learning and training opportunities for staff and communities on habitat management, plant identification and survey techniques. Interesting finds on the site include holly blue butterflies and the elm flower bug previously thought to be extinct in Northern Ireland. There’s even a biodiverse roof on part of the new visitor centre.

More information on biodiversity and nature

For more information, email [email protected].