The National Lottery Heritage Fund today announced a £5 million investment in a ground-breaking initiative to create a huge matrix of community-led rewilding projects – improving the lives of people from some of the most disadvantaged areas across the UK and leaving a lasting natural legacy in honour of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. The funding is part of The National Lottery’s £22 million investment to mark the Jubilee and North Merseyside will benefit with its own project.
Delivered by The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside (that's us!), Nextdoor Nature will give people the skills, tools and opportunity to take action for nature. This could include establishing wild habitats and green corridors in areas of economic and nature deprivation, rewilding school grounds, or naturalising highly urbanised or unused areas. The pandemic has demonstrated just how important access to a well-cared for natural environment is to communities across the UK.
Examples of communities that we'll work alongside include:
- People within the Seaforth, Bootle and Waterloo areas who are concerned about losing their green space to development.
- Coastal communities and others who don’t currently access nature.
- Children, young people and families, who'll be encouraged to use their local green spaces for mental and physical wellbeing benefits.
The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, yet research shows that 85 per cent of people in nature-deprived areas say more natural spaces would improve their quality of life. The majority also say that having access to local natural spaces is more important to them post-pandemic. Nextdoor Nature will enable people to make this happen and in doing so, take steps to tackle the nature and climate crisis while also addressing important health and wellbeing needs.