Words like sustainability or resilience or vulnerability are often used in the media these days but what do they really mean? The ‘Rethinking the Country Conference’, held at Tipperary Institute this week aimed to answer this very question.  Part of the Convergence Festival by Cultivate in Dublin and Cloughjordan.  Davie Philip from Cultivate and MC for the day, outlined the Conference mission as bringing together Irish stakeholders, leaders and academics from a wide variety of sectors. The central challenge was for rural communities and enterprises to explore how we can work together to build resilience in a future of energy, climate and economic uncertainty.  Terry O Niaidh, County Manager of North Tipperary County Council opened the event and pointed out that although agriculture has seen a decline over the last 20 years that it still continues to be one of the strongest sectors in North Tipperary.  He highlighted the importance of stabilizing the existing farm population and one of the key policies of the County Council which is ‘to encourage the development of rural based enterprises’.

 

Over 80 delegates attended this one day conference to tackle some very important questions.  What do we really mean by sustainable communities and how are they created? What real and practical steps can be taken to improve our quality of life and help make strong rural communities that provide livelihoods and strong local economies?  How can we heat our homes and use transport in a sustainable way?  Ciaran Lynch, a key presenter and Head of the Rural Development Department at Tipperary Institute, spoke of the need for ‘sustainable communities to look outwards as well as inwards’.  He also talked about the importance of developing ‘a coherent vision for the rural’ which is essential if we want to build resilient communities. Other speakers included; Helen Lawrenson from the Falkland Centre for Stewardship, Vincent Nally from Irish Rural Link, Ben Whelan from Cultivate, Seamus Hoyne from the Tipperary Energy Agency, Paul Allen from the Centre for Alternative Technology and Zero Carbon Britain and Michael Kenny from the National University of Ireland Maynooth.

 

A number of key ideas emerged from the conference.  In his presentation, Professor Peader Kirby from Limerick University emphasised the need for both personal and public actions to build resilience. On an individual level he maintained we need to ‘reduce our contribution to threats and strengthen our coping mechanisms’.  We may not always have control of the threats or global changes but we do have control over how we react and how resourceful we are in that action.  He noted the importance of ‘moving to a no growth economy for ecological survival’.  One of the themes that emerged from the Conference attendees was the importance of ‘local’, whether that is the food, the economy or the community. Another core theme was the need for and the challenge of cooperation within communities to build resilience.

The Rethinking the Country Conference was organized by Cultivate, Tipperary Institute, The Village, Irish Rural Link and Carnegie Trust. The Conference was an initiative of the building sustainable communities project by Tipperary Institute.  This work in in partnership with the Carnegie Trust.

 

Click here to download the brochure.