Horizons

Local community or environmental groups, residents' associations or tidy towns organisations looking for new direction or support in areas of conservation can avail of both practical and management skills training from Conservation Volunteers Ireland. Awarded £3,000 by the Heritage Council, CVI is in the process of setting up local conservation volunteering groups.

Melanie Hamiliton, executive director of CVI says: "We can offer advice and training to groups who wish to devise a management plan. We can also run practical courses in tree planting, dry stone walling, hedgerow and woodland management and wildflower meadow maintenance." Local authorities around the country have already expressed interest in the scheme, which will run initially as a five-month pilot study. Interested groups should contact CVI before the end of the month. Tel: 01-4547185. E-mail info@cvi.ie

More than one quarter of Chinese territory is plagued by rampant desertification. The problem is greatest in the north, where vast quantities of land become desert each year, according to a report in the London Independent. The ecological disaster is now concerning officials in Beijing, who are considering moving the capital to a safer location.

"Environmental destruction is very severe," Luo Bin, desertification expert at the State Forestry Administration told reporters in Beijing.

"So many areas have sacrificed the environment for economic development. Vegetative cover grows worse and worse as people waste water resources, plant inappropriate crops and over-graze the grasslands.

No country on Earth has put such funding into building ecosystems as China, but we have many people and little land." China is among the countries worst affected by the global problem of desertification. Its 1.3 billion people survive on one quarter of the worldwide per capita average of arable land and fresh water resources, write Calum and Lijia Macleod in the report. Innovations currently being tested include blasting grass seeds into outer space to mutate into desert-resistant varieties.

University College Dublin is currently seeking applicants for its one-year full-time course in European Environment Conservation Management. The course, which begins in October, is open to those with their Leaving Certificate and relevant work experience, or graduates in a related discipline. Run jointly by UCD and the Conservation Education Trust, the course is grant-aided by the Department of Education and mature students get fees paid and maintenance grants.

Graduates from previous years now work as wildlife rangers, information and education officers in the national parks and wildlife services. Contact the Continuing Professional Education programme at the Innovation Centre, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4 (Tel: 01-7168712 or e-mail tina.jones@ucd.ie) or the Conservation Education Trust, The Community Centre, Loughlinstown, Co Dublin (Tel: 01-2827920) for more details.

Some of Ireland's best-known experts on the environment will lead the activities of this year's ESB Lough Ree Environmental Summer School. Dick Warner, Eanna N∅ Lamhna, Richard Collins and others will give talks, lead walks and inform participants about the living environment.

Activities include a historical field trip to Inisbofin and Saints Island, an introduction to bat life using bat detectors and an exploration of the bird life of Lough Ree. Running from July 12th to 15th, the school is based in Lanesborough, Co Longford. Tel: 043-27070 for more details. See also www.lough-ree.com

The ESB Environmental Photography exhibition continues its tour throughout the summer. Running in two venues at once this year for the first time, the photographs are on show in Athy Community Library until June 23rd and Friars Gate Theatre and Arts Centre, Limerick, until June 28th. The exhibition then moves to the Mullingar Integrated Arts Centre from June 26th to July 12th and Mohill Library, Mohill, Co Leitrim, from July 20th to August 15th.

Other venues later this year include Garter Lane Arts Centre, Waterford city from August 31st to September 28th, the Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar, Co Mayo, from September 23rd to October 23rd, the Tullyarvan Mill, Buncrana, Co Donegal, from October 25th to November 25th and St John's Arts and Heritage Centre, Listowel, Co Kerry, from October 31st to November 30th.