Bold new community climate action project launched in Garvagh

Hare’s Corner Cooperative with Community Garden Support, Quarto Collective, Rural Community Network, Wild Awake and Wild Life has launched a major new four-year project to grow relationships across the Agivey River catchment area between people, communities and the rest of the natural world.

The new Agivey River Communities (ARC) Project is being developed with a National Lottery grant of £701,925 and will connect people across the river catchment — from Garvagh Forest through the Sperrins to the River Bann — in a shared mission of creativity, care and community-led climate action.

Backed by The National Lottery Community Fund through the Climate Action Fund, the project marks the latest chapter in a growing environmental movement rooted in Garvagh Forest.

The project is being delivered in partnership with Ballerin GAC, Glenullin GAC, Moneydig Rural Network, St Paul’s Church of Ireland, Friends of Garvagh Museum, Garvagh PS, Carhill IPS, Gorran PS, Kilrea PS, St Columba’s PS and St Patrick’s and St Joseph’s PS.

Hare’s Corner Cooperative Chair Kelly Pinkerton explained that the project will help local people rediscover the Agivey not just as a river, but as a lifeline for nature, heritage, wellbeing and community connection.

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Kelly added: “We see the Agivey River not simply as a waterway, but as a living system connecting communities, heritage, biodiversity and wellbeing. This project is about reconnecting people with the river, with one another, and with the living systems that support community life.

“ARC is the next chapter in a journey that began in Garvagh Forest and has grown through creativity, care and shared stewardship. We are deeply grateful to The National Lottery Community Fund and to National Lottery players for making this work possible.”

ARC builds on years of grassroots work by Hare’s Corner Cooperative. What began with the Garvagh People’s Forest Project hosted by Garvagh Development Trust grew during the pandemic into deeper community collaboration, before evolving into setting up the Cooperative and the Forest Did It First - an 18-month development project exploring biomimicry, creativity and regenerative responses to climate and ecological challenges.

Now, that learning is being scaled up across the full Agivey catchment.

The new project will create opportunities for schools, community groups, local organisations and neighbouring institutions to work together in fresh ways, using creative activity, shared learning, events and exchange to strengthen ties between people and place.

Kelly added that the message at the heart of ARC is simple: when communities are given the space to imagine, create and care together, real ecological change can happen.

Anyone interested in taking part in the project can get in touch with the Hare’s Corner Cooperative by harescornercooperative@gmail.com.