The National Lottery Heritage Fund today 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 and Worcestershire will benefit with its own project.

Delivered by Worcestershire 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.

Worcestershire Wildlife Trust will work alongside communities in parts of Bromsgrove and Redditch where there is limited access to nature close to where people live. The local charity will also work alongside young people across Worcestershire, inspiring community action where they live.

The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world and research shows that 85% 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!”

Colin Raven, Director of Worcestershire Wildlife Trust added:

“We know from experience that people want to take action to improve their neighbourhoods for wildlife but often it’s hard to know where to start. Nextdoor Nature will let communities set their own agenda about how they want to improve their local area for wildlife 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, Worcestershire Wildlife Trust will work in areas of Redditch and Bromsgrove that have limited access to nature where people live.  Staff and volunteers will work with a range of local organisations and community groups to improve areas for wildlife, from hedgehog streets to pollinator patches. Evidence shows that people are increasingly disconnected from nature, with profound consequences for health and the result that 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.”

Worcestershire Wildlife Trust is currently delivering Wilder Worcestershire, a project that is helping to improve areas for nature in targeted areas of Worcester. This work is building on their previous Wild Worcester project and a Community Pollinators project in Tolladine, Worcester where the Trust worked with a local school, sheltered housing scheme and community centre to improve areas for pollinators.

More recently the Trust has begun a project, Saving Worcestershire's Heathlands, focused on Kidderminster, Bewdley and Stourport to improve areas for nature close to where people live.

Anyone interested in finding out more about Nextdoor Nature can register here to receive information: wildlifetrusts.org/nextdoor-nature

Research cited in the press release includes:

85% 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. See poll data in “New campaign calls for legal right to local nature in Levelling Up reforms” here.

The health and wellbeing benefits that come with having more nature around homes and neighbourhoods are immense and well documented. Read some of the evidence here and, for example, Doses of Neighborhood Nature: The Benefits for Mental Health of Living with Nature here.

Evidence shows that people are increasingly disconnected from nature, with profound consequences. It negatively impacts our health and wellbeing and leads to a long-term reduction in people’s affinity to nature, which means they are less likely to protect their natural heritage. See Human-nature interactions and the consequences and drivers of provisioning wildlife, Cox & Gaston, 2018). Also see A Growing Disconnection from Nature Is Evident in Cultural Products here.