Planted and maintains three pollinator corridors
Daniel Mwangi holds a master's degree in urban ecology from the University of Nairobi. He arrived in Cork in 2023 on a graduate research visa attached to a UCC environmental sciences collaboration. When the research funding ended after twelve months, he stayed.
While his immigration status was being regularised, he began working with the Cork City Council parks department as an unpaid volunteer — specifically on their pollinator corridor initiative, a project to connect fragmented urban green spaces through wildflower planting along road verges and vacant lots.
Daniel identified three underperforming stretches in the northwest of the city, conducted informal ecological surveys, and proposed a planting scheme using native Irish wildflower species appropriate for the soil conditions and light levels of each site. The council's biodiversity officer adopted his plans.
The three corridors were planted over two weekends with community volunteers. Daniel coordinated the planting and now maintains all three himself, seasonally, without payment.
He is currently employed as a research assistant at UCC. He is writing a paper on urban pollinator networks in Irish secondary cities. His three corridors feature in the methodology section.