Global Action Plan, an Irish-based environmental initiative inspired by the Earth Summit, is "in dire straits" and may have to close by the end of next month unless it receives a major cash injection.
GAP's chairwoman, Ms Liz Sherry, admitted that it is running out of money to fund the initiative, which is aimed at encouraging people to take personal responsibility for the environment by following a planned programme.
"We're in dire straits. We only have enough to pay the staff until the end of September," Ms Sherry said. "We would like to employ a fund-raiser, but we can't afford to do that at present because we don't have core funding or major sponsorship."
The GAP concept is based on a 14-week "eco-team programme" which shows people how they can minimise the harmful effects of their household's day-to-day activities on the environment, for example, by reducing waste and conserving energy.
So far a disappointingly small number of households, 290, have signed up for the programme, even though annual savings in each case would amount to 50 litres of petrol, 25,000 litres of water, 300 kilograms of waste and 1.6 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
GAP's director, Ms Audrey Dickson, believes many more people would become involved in the eco-team programme if they knew about it. "That means promoting it at local level, but we don't have enough money to do that. We're struggling to survive."
In the Department of the Environment's latest tranche of partnership awards, GAP received £9,000, down from £17,000 last year. Ten local authorities also chipped in during 1997, with grants of £1,000 to £2,000, but only five are supporting GAP this year.
Ms Dickson complained: "We've heard a lot of talk about sustainable development and Agenda 21 [the Earth Summit's action plan for the 21st century], but there's no real money going to fund it". She said GAP groups in 17 other countries face similar problems.
"It's a chicken-and-egg situation. In order to put our message across, we need to have people on the ground around the country to get eco-teams going. But we can't offer employees security of tenure because of our current funding difficulties," she said.
The five local authorities supporting GAP are Fingal, Mayo, Meath and Sligo county councils and Ennis UDC. "There's something in it for them because if more people got involved, it would save money on landfill sites," according to Ms Sherry.
She said GAP had won several environmental awards for putting into practice the slogan "Think globally, act locally". It was also producing a booklet aimed at schools and hoping to make a video to make the programme more accessible.
Ms Sherry said GAP was seeking a high-profile patron as well as core funding. "We also need a larger premises. At present, all we have is a pokey little office in Carmichael House [North Brunwick Street] which is barely big enough to hold meetings."
According to GAP's latest newsletter, "the strength of the programme lies in the fact that it is not a once-off event but a longterm tool to educate the community about sustainable living." As such, it "goes one step further than simply raising awareness."
Global Action Plan may be contacted by telephoning (01) 8733993.
