Wildlife projects in Cumbria will benefit from a slice of £5 million funding to help mark the Queen’s platinum jubilee.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Nextdoor Nature aims to create 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.
Delivered by Cumbria Wildlife Trust, 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 Cumbria Wildlife Trust will work alongside include a cluster of primary schools in socio-economically disadvantaged or nature-deprived areas of Carlisle.
There are no more details as to what projects Cumbria Wildlife Trust will undertake.
Stephen Trotter, chief executive of Cumbria Wildlife Trust, said: “We are very excited to receive funding from National Lottery Heritage Fund, as it will allow us to do more work with local communities and enable more people to take action for nature.
“Thanks to this funding, we’ll help a group of schools in Carlisle to bring nature into everything they do throughout the school day. We’ll be building close connections with the schools, and strengthening the links between them and their local communities.
“We know that people want to take action to improve their neighbourhoods but often it’s 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. We’re looking forward to starting on this exciting project.”
