Written by Michael McGlade, Community Relations Council
ARK published a paper exploring peacebuilding through social and community farming in Northern Ireland.
The paper considers social and community farming as similar approaches to connecting society with farming and farming with society in the region. It also outlines how both processes create diverse and multidimensional social, economic and environmental benefits, as well as how they have contributed to good relations and peacebuilding.
The research draws on reflective practice, documentary review and the authors’ long-term involvement as practitioners, volunteers, founders, facilitators and researchers from 2014 to the present.
A key outcome of the paper is a consideration of how social and community farming can improve relationships between differing religious, political and ethnic communities.
Policy highlights
- Social and community farming offer multidimensional social, economic and environmental benefits in Northern Ireland and beyond.
- The rural policy framework for Northern Ireland largely overlooks opportunities to connect agri-environmental, social and good relations objectives, despite growing environmental themes in good relations funding.
- There is clear potential to pursue peacebuilding more explicitly through social farming, especially with refugees and asylum seekers, and through community farming with minority ethnic groups, but this requires formal policy support.
- A more holistic and integrated policy framework is needed to support social and community farming as part of environmental peacebuilding.