Almost £3m in funding has been announced to preserve and improve Lough Erne.

A total of £2.9m from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has been allocated to enhance one of Ireland's most unique landscapes.

The funding, which includes a £253,900 development fund, will go to the Lough Erne Landscape Partnership which is led by the RSPB. It will be used to conserve at risk heritage buildings; to preserve and improve wildlife species and their habitats and to better manage a 500 square kilometre area of Fermanagh's internationally renowned Lakelands.

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Environment Minister Mark H Durkan said: "This funding will be a real boost for tourism and local people in the Lough Erne area. It will help to preserve and protect this unique landscape which contains more than 100 scheduled monuments and is covered by a range of international and national nature conservation designations. It contains one of the finest and most extensive arrays of wetland habitats in the UK and Ireland which is home to threatened birds such as the curlew, snipe and lapwing."

(CD/LM)