Third edition of Galloway and Southern Ayrshire Biosphere news!

Biosphere Newsletter – January 2021 (copy 01)

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Message from the Biosphere Partnership Chair

2020 was a momentous year for Galloway and Southern Ayrshire Biosphere. After many years of working on a shoestring budget with two part-time core members of staff and lobbying to convince people of the importance of this international designation, the new South of Scotland Enterprise Agency recognised our potential to help deliver sustainable development in South-West Scotland.
The result has been a commitment from SoSE to five- years funding worth £1.9 million and a very welcome willingness to work in partnership with us. This funding will allow us to expand our team to a level which can realistically deliver across our ambitious remit and large geographical area. Our first priority is to recruit two lead officers to lead on Community & Education and Land Use & Biodiversity to join Marie McNulty as Business Development lead officer and Ed Forrest as Manager. We also recognised the priority of marketing and communications and are advertising for a lead officer for this role. We have already appointed a Finance and Office manager and I’m delighted to welcome Jude Crooks who has been working with the Galloway Glens Landscape Partnership to that role. This will give us a ‘top team’ of six full-time permanent officers which we plan to expand over the next year or so with additional posts and internships to around eleven members of staff.
I think our success in gaining support has been down to two factors – our record to date and the relevance of the sustainability agenda to our troubled times.
One of our attractions was that, thanks to the efforts of Ed and Marie, we were seen to have delivered an impressive array of initiatives on a shoestring. The success of the Biosphere business initiatives such as the certification mark, the work on the UNESCO Trail with Visitscotland, and the Biosphere Experiences initiative; the habitat management plan and climate ready biosphere work in the environment sector; and the community initiatives delivered through PLACE and SHAPE projects, demonstrated our potential. Perhaps as important was the very obvious fact that we had a lot of oven-ready initiatives which could never be baked without more cooks in the kitchen!
The experience of Covid19 and the twin threat of climate change and biodiversity loss have also hit home across society, highlighting our vulnerability and the urgent need to do things differently. Human dependence on the natural world has never been more obvious – the time has come for the Biosphere ethos.
Finally we would have not reached this exciting point without the support of our other loyal core funders – Dumfries and Galloway Council, South Ayrshire and East Ayrshire Council, Nature Scotland and Forest and Land Scotland – the commitment and enthusiasm of our board , our hard-working trustees and the excellence of our staff. Thanks to all.
Joan Mitchell (Chair)

We're recruiting three new positions to help build the core team that will be responsible for delivering the sustainability ethos of our UNESCO Biosphere across SW Scotland.
It's going to be hard work, but it’s also going to be exciting!
Do you have what it takes to join us ?

Land Use and Biodiversity Lead Officer
Community and Education Lead Officer
Marketing and Communication Lead Officer

For more information please go to https://www.gsabiosphere.org.uk/were-recruiting/

Biosphere in Action Film

The Biosphere works closely with a range of partners across South West Scotland and further afield, looking for opportunities to help facilitate the delivery of new ideas and initiatives that support the ethos of UNESCO Biospheres and can help demonstrate our Biosphere in Action.

One such partner is The Galloway Glens Landscape Partnership Scheme which focusses on the Ken Dee River river catchment, running from the core of the Biosphere at Silver Flow down to its outer edges on the Solway coast.

The Galloway Glens Team have produced a short film 'The Biosphere in Action' which explains more about the role of the Biosphere. You can check out the short film here

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Galloway and Southern Ayrshire Biosphere Partnership
Kirroughtree Courtyard
Stronord
Newton Stewart, Dumfries & Galloway DG8 7BE
United Kingdom