Inmates at the Prison Farm will be given the tools to learn about farming and gardening under a new scheme which received funding from the Environment Ministry this week.

The Grow Food First programme was one of seven groups that received grants totalling $53,000 for environmental schemes from Environment Minister Neletha Butterfield.

The project will see the Department of Corrections teaming up with local environmentalist Francis Eddy to teach bio-intensive gardening skills to Prison Farm inmates.

Receiving grant money to cover the cost of equipment, supplies and plants, Farmers Market founder Ms Eddy will show inmates how to use the Prison Farm?s under-utilised fields to produce fruits and vegetables. Ms Butterfield also announced funding for a partnered initiative to ?replace Victor Scott School?s concrete jungle with a far softer, greener and pleasant landscape?.

The primary school and the environmental group, Learning Through Landscapes, will join forces and will put the $5,000 grant towards the initial design of the new grounds. Ms Butterfield said the Ministry will cover the costs of the construction of the new school landscape.

The type of projects which Ms Butterfield highlighted as ?effective in moving good ideas forward? were two applications featuring partnerships in the community.

Also benefiting from the grant scheme, which is still in its first year, will be projects to produce educational pamphlets on pesticides and skink preservation, an educational programme at the Bermuda High School for Girls and a grant to the Bermuda Audubon Society to construct 500 man-made nest sites for longtails.

Also receiving grant money was the Greenhouse Project, which is spearheaded by the environmental group Save Open Spaces (SOS). The group hopes to be able to counter some of the damage done to Bermuda?s vegetation by Hurricane Fabian by using a greenhouse in Devonshire Marsh, SOS plan to help propagate cedar, palmetto and olivewood trees.

The grant scheme was launched at the start of this financial year. ?We saw the need to support practical steps and real action to effect change on the ground, and to promote initiatives to educate and raise levels of environmental awareness,? Ms Butterfield said.

At the award ceremony held at the Botanical Gardens, the Minister said she was disappointed by the lack of variety of projects proposed by the 16 groups that applied for the scheme.

?Over half of the applications this time around proposed public awareness and education programmes,? she said.

?We certainly support this type of initiative,? said Ms Butterfield. ?Nevertheless we hope that future applications will feature a wider variety of practical, on-the-ground restoration and improvement projects.?

Also benefiting from the Grant Scheme, which is still in its first year, will be two projects to produce educational materials. A grant worth $5000 will go towards a Skink Protection Pamphlet, whereas another $8000 will be used to produce brochures to raise public awareness of the dangers of pesticide use.

The Bermuda High School for Girls will be using their $10,000 grant to fund their primary school?s extensive gardening programme. Grant money totalling $10,000 will also enable the Bermuda Audubon Society to construct 500 man-made nest sites for Longtails.

Also receiving $10,000 in grant money will be the Greenhouse Project, which is spearheaded by the environmental group, Save Open Spaces (SOS). The group hopes to be able to counter some of the damage done to Bermuda?s endemic trees by Hurricane Fabian.

By using The National Trust?s green house in Devonshire Marsh, SOS plans to help propagate Bermuda Cedar, Palmetto and Olivewood trees throughout the island. ?The Environmental Grant Scheme was launched at the start of this financial year,? said Ms Butterfield, who added that the Ministry ?recognised that legislation, regulations and policy alone could not be relied on to protect Bermuda?s environmental quality and biological diversity?.

?We saw the need to support practical steps and real action to effect change on the ground, and to promote initiatives to educate and raise levels of environmental awareness.?

?The grant scheme is designed specifically to support and encourage all branches of the community to conserve, preserve, enhance and restore the island?s natural environment? said the Minister.

For this first year of the programme the ministry allocated $100,000, half of which was awarded this past June.

The latest seven awards were selected by a six person Ministry committee, who had to cut nine of the 16 projects proposed by individuals, community groups, non-governmental organisations and schools.

But the Minister pointed out that ?the next round of grants will be awarded in June, 2004? and added that the Ministry will be advertising for applications in the coming months, though interested parties may apply any time during the year.