Northern Ireland

Introduction:

In relation to the rest of the UK, Northern Ireland is a small and peripheral region with a growing regional economy, economically linked with the Republic of Ireland. Northern Ireland has continued its recent trend of steady growth, benefiting from greater political stability. Since 1998 employment levels are up, unemployment rates down and GVA has grown steadily. At the same time, it maintains the highest economic inactivity rates in the UK, relatively low skills levels in the workforce, and low productivity.

In the current Economic Vision there is emphasis only on ‘sustainable economic development’ as the process of modernisation and moving away from public sector dependency. In this context, the definition of “sustainability” can be expanded for Northern Ireland to include the impact of development on resource flows. An active Local Agenda 21 programme in the green and community lobby will continue to bring to the fore the environmental impacts of resource consumption.

WWF-UK Projects in Northern Ireland:

There are currently no WWF-UK Local Authority projects in Northern Ireland.