Dr. Aoibhinn N? Sh?illeabh?in:

We spoke about it quite broadly. Recommendations 55 to 65 in section 1.8 really cover that because we spoke about formal education all the way through, from the importance of the nature table all the way up to further education, community education and the modules people can take at night. Recommendation 59 states that there should be mandatory and ongoing biodiversity training for any civil or public servant whose work affects wildlife and biodiversity. There are plenty of webinars and MOOCs out there already. All the universities have vice presidents for sustainability. There are far more lifelong learning elements to all of this. It was certainly something we spoke about. There are initiatives that could be done quite quickly, like the Green Schools initiative and the biodiversity flag, which tends to be one of the last ones they do. Could it be brought up further up in the line? Could we use local parks and public amenities a bit more as education spaces as we see in other countries? A State agency, such as the NPWS, could highlight that specific part of public engagement known as citizen science, where people can get involved in these elements as they already do with BirdWatch Ireland, etc. People love being involved in saying "I saw this bird" or "I saw this creature". All of that contributes to public engagement and education. There are ten specific actions that talk about public engagement and education.