Carndonagh’s Two Rivers at the Heart of New MINDSET Climate Resilience Mission

A new MINDSET mission in Donegal will support community-led climate action to protect, restore and enhance the two rivers that run through Carndonagh: the Glentogher-Donagh and the Glenagannon.

Developed through the MINDSET project, the mission focuses on strengthening the cultural heritage, biodiversity and climate resilience of Carndonagh’s river system. It brings together local environmental, cultural, educational and community actors around a shared goal: to build long-term stewardship of the town’s two rivers through coordinated action.

The Glentogher-Donagh and Glenagannon rivers are important ecological and cultural assets for Carndonagh. They support biodiversity, contribute to natural flood regulation and form part of the town’s local heritage and identity. However, both rivers face growing pressures from pollution, habitat degradation, biodiversity loss and climate-related impacts, including increased rainfall and flood risk.

The mission provides a framework for community-led river protection and climate adaptation. It aims to improve local understanding of the connections between river health, climate change and resilience, while supporting practical action on the ground.

Activities linked to the mission may include education, citizen science, river monitoring, heritage storytelling and habitat restoration. Together, these actions will help communities better understand the condition of the rivers, identify risks and opportunities, and contribute to their long-term protection.

The mission is being developed using the Regional Mission-Oriented Innovation approach, known as RegMOI. This approach helps partners move beyond isolated actions by bringing different sectors and stakeholders together around a shared mission. In Carndonagh, this means connecting river restoration, biodiversity, education, heritage and climate adaptation within one coordinated portfolio of actions.

Through RegMOI, proposed activities are assessed according to how they contribute to river health, climate resilience and long-term community stewardship. This helps ensure that local initiatives are not only valuable individually, but also work together towards a wider shared ambition.

The Donegal mission will contribute to the wider MINDSET project objective of testing mission-oriented approaches to complex territorial challenges across the Northern Periphery and Arctic region. By focusing on Carndonagh’s two rivers, the mission shows how local heritage, biodiversity and climate adaptation can be addressed together through community leadership and collaborative governance.

Over time, the mission aims to strengthen local capacity, support more resilient communities and demonstrate how place-based climate action can help protect the natural and cultural assets that matter to people locally.

Read more about the MINDSET missions: www.interreg-npa.eu/projects/mindset/home/outputs-results/