The National Lottery Heritage Fund has announced a £5million 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 £22million investment to mark the Jubilee. The funding has been split for Wildlife Trusts around the country to run localised projects.

In Staffordshire, Staffordshire Wildlife Trust (SWT) will deliver Nextdoor Nature in Stafford to 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.

Over the next two years SWT will work alongside several disadvantaged communities in central Stafford. This work will be far reaching to enhance the identified areas for residents and will be open to everyone to get involved, including schools, community groups, families and young people.

The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world and research shows 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 post-pandemic. Nextdoor Nature will enable people to make this happen and in doing so, take steps to tackle the nature and climate crisis whilst also addressing important health and wellbeing needs.

Simon Thurley, Chair of The National Lottery Heritage Fund, says:

 “As part of The National Lottery family’s £22m investment to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, we are delighted to launch Nextdoor Nature, a transformational initiative which will give access to the natural environment to thousands of people who may not have fully enjoyed or appreciated it before. We hope that many people will, for the first time, get hands on with nature creating a new generation of champions for our precious natural environment.”

Liz Bonnin, President of The Wildlife Trusts, says:

“We humans are key to solving the climate crisis and restoring our natural heritage. The UK is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world, but Nextdoor Nature is working to set that right, putting local communities at the heart of helping our wild places to recover, and making sure that no matter where we live, we can be part of this crucial endeavour.

“The Wildlife Trusts are firmly rooted in communities and can provide support and advice to those willing to lead the charge in bringing wildlife back to homes and workplaces – in turn inspiring those around them to do the same. we can achieve incredible things when we work together!”

Shelley Pattinson, Project Manager, Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, said:

“We know that often people want to take action to improve their neighbourhoods but it can be hard to know where to start. Nextdoor Nature will let communities set their own agenda about the environmental issues they want to tackle and we’ll be looking at different ways of bringing people together and giving them support, skills and confidence to take the next step.”

Thanks to the funding from the Heritage Fund, SWT can enable and empower these Stafford communities to bring nature back to their doorsteps. Evidence shows that people are increasingly disconnected from nature, with profound consequences for health and it also means they are less likely to protect their natural heritage.

In the words of Sir David Attenborough, President Emeritus of The Wildlife Trusts, “No-one will protect what they don’t care about; and no-one will care about what they have never experienced.”

SWT is well positioned to facilitate community action projects and has been doing this for many years. It’s now widely recognised that when grassroots activity is instigated by communities, led and delivered by them, it then lasts and becomes part of their everyday life. Acting as an advisor and supplying resources for this work, SWT can support communities to really make a longstanding difference to their area.

Anyone interested in finding out more can register here to receive information.