A new report launched by our My Wild City project, an innovative collaboration between The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside and Manchester City Council, outlines long-term plans for how nature in Manchester will be protected, enhanced, celebrated and restored to benefit people and wildlife alike.
Exciting new plans to reconnect Manchester with its urban wildlife
We've unveiled exciting new plans to help transform Manchester into a wildlife-rich city.
The 2020 Manchester Natural Capital Conference in February – where the report entitled, ‘Reconnecting Manchester with urban wildlife: next steps’ made its first debut – showcased just how vital nature is to our city. Improving Manchester's air quality, providing flood and heat resilience as well as opportunities for recreation, better physical and mental health and wellbeing, and education, to name but a few.
‘Reconnecting Manchester with urban wildlife’ is a review of My Wild City’s 2019 public consultation about wildlife and wild spaces in Manchester and how My Wild City will respond over the next three years of the project and beyond.
One key finding of the public consultation was that of the 2,195 people who responded, 97 per cent said that Manchester’s wildlife was important to them. Gardens were also highlighted as a ‘favourite place for wildlife’.
Of the 2,195 people who responded, 97 per cent said that Manchester’s wildlife was important to them
In response, My Wild City will be collaboratively producing an ambitious and practical long-term Biodiversity Strategy between The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside, Manchester City Council and other key stakeholders.
My Wild City will also be delivering practical actions on the ground. Hilary Wood, My Wild City Project Officer at The Wildlife Trust, said:
“Our recent public consultation highlights just how important individual actions and local community groups are for wildlife in the city. A big strand of our work will be supporting and celebrating these groups and individuals; providing resources, replicable case-studies and shared learning, in a piece of work entitled ‘My Wild Neighbourhoods’, which we are hoping will be a really useful asset for wildlife action groups and individuals throughout Manchester and beyond.
“Working closely with the Manchester City Council’s Parks Team we will be jointly writing management plans for Sites of Biological Importance where they sit within parks, and providing parks staff with events and engagement training. We will also be encouraging more people to take part in biological recording, helping to build a better picture of the wildlife living in Manchester. These will all have a huge impact on the way we view and protect urban wildlife in Manchester, so it’s a really exciting time for us as a project and the city as a whole.”
My Wild City is a four-year collaboration between The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside and Manchester City Council, launched in 2019 and funded by the Esmeé Fairbairn Foundation. The aim of the project is to reconnect people with the urban wildlife living right on their doorstep, inspiring and motivating Manchester’s residents to help transform Manchester into a wildlife-rich city which can be enjoyed by people and wildlife for generations to come.