The Irish Red Grouse Association Conservation Trust has seen tremendous success thanks to its grass-roots approach of supporting local conservation projects on the ground.
Shortly after the publication of the 2008 National Red Grouse Survey, which showed a continuing sharp decline in Irish red grouse with local extinctions across many lowland bogs and moorland habitats, the board of the Countryside Alliance Ireland (CAI) established the Irish Red Grouse Association Conservation Trust (IRGACT). Six years on, we can now start to look back at the project’s success and the astounding results it has achieved across the whole of Ireland.
The prime objective of the IRGACT was the conservation of red grouse by empowering and helping local conservation projects on the ground while working with other nongovernmental organisations and government organisations in promoting the cause at the national level. The rural community rallied behind the Trust, with support gained from farming organisations, dog trialling clubs, gun clubs, hawking clubs, ornithologists and the rural communities.
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