In celebration of the 50th year anniversary of the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere programme, three neighbouring Biosphere Reserves, the Dublin Bay Biosphere Reserve, The Kerry Biosphere Reserve and the Isle of Man Biosphere Reserve, have come together to co-host a yearlong webinar programme celebrating the natural and built heritage and culture of these extraordinary places.

As our first offering for January Dublin Bay invited BirdWatch Ireland to talk about the important research and conservation work they do on the Birds in Dublin Bay and around the country. Filled with identification tips, advice on how and where best to watch the birds without causing them any disturbance and a live feed from out on Bull Island itself, the core protected area in Dublin Bay Biosphere, it proved to be a great success!

This month it’s the Kerry Biosphere’s turn to host and they have lined up a very interesting speaker.

Biosphere Reserves are described are places where Nature and Culture connect; the three main functions of a Biosphere Reserve are conservation, development and learning. They are focused not only on conservation of the environment in which they sit but the culture and heritage of that area too, the people within a Biosphere Reserve are just as important as nature.

With this in mind this month’s webinar offering will focus on culture with Shane Lehane, course Director of Cultural and Heritage Studies in CSN, College of Further Education, Cork and lecturer in the Department of Folklore and Ethnology, UCC where his specialism is in ‘Custom, Tradition and Belief’.

Shane is a beekeeper and an advocate of Irish vernacular craft; his research interests include material culture and time. These topics speak very closely to today’s discussions around fast fashion and sustainability. He is often seen on the couch with Maura and Daithí on the Today show (RTÉ) and has written numerous articles on different topics of culture and heritage for publications like the Irish Times.

If you like the idea of getting out and doing it for yourself, building boats or baskets, learning by doing and the rich cultural history of how stuff is made and why it’s made that way then this webinar is for you!

Join us on Tuesday, February 16th from 12 -1.30pm online for what promises to be a lively discussion.