As a major international wildlife charity, we’re celebrating a huge success for the zoo and for nature – we've secured £4million from The National Lottery Heritage Fund for our Networks for Nature project.
This is our biggest ever funding boost and will enable and empower us to transform the environment across Cheshire and enact real change to encourage Cheshire wildlife to flourish.
We caught up with Hannah Brooks, Senior Community Participation & Engagement Manager here at Chester Zoo to discover more about how the grant will support the Networks for Nature project to make a positive difference for wildlife and people.
What is the Networks for Nature project?
Networks for Nature is a landscape scale conservation project, delivered through community participation. We’re going to work with a wide range of different audiences including schools, community groups, GP practices, farmers, private landowners, and local organisations to create a thriving, more connected, wildlife-rich landscape, benefitting both people and nature, and maintained through community collaboration. We’re working in partnership with Cheshire West and Chester Local Council (CWAC), Cheshire Wildlife Trust, the Canal and River Trust, Sustrans, and The Land Trust, who have committed to improving their own land holdings in the area for wildlife. This collaborative project will enable a comprehensive and joined-up response to tackling habitat fragmentation and degradation, and urban isolation from nature.
We’re going to work with a wide range of different audiences to create a thriving, more connected, wildlife-rich landscape, benefitting both people and nature, and maintained through community collaboration.
How will the funding help the project?
This funding is a massive boost which will enable us to reach new audiences with a range of different activities. We’re going to be able to recruit a project team and the funding will cover practical conservation action and resources to support community participation. We will use the funding to help us to:
- Create or restore more than 100 hectares of habitat
- Create or restore 20 ponds and nearly 3,000 metres of hedgerows
- Engage 4,500 students in year-long school-based nature projects
- Train 90 young environmental leaders
- Support 18 community groups to improve local green spaces for people and wildlife
- Engage over 700 people in volunteering opportunities
- Host an annual nature festival, bringing people together to celebrate nature and spread awareness of the importance of conservation
The funding will ultimately allow us to empower communities to have an active role in conservation action and will help make nature more accessible and inclusive for everyone to enable connection and improve wellbeing.
In which areas of Cheshire will Networks for Nature support nature recovery?
Spanning 60 square miles from the River Dee to the River Mersey, including Chester and Ellesmere Port.
Networks for Nature will work across Chester and Ellesmere Port, and also with private landowners and farmers in the area between the two urban areas and along the Gowy river catchment. Take a look at our map of the project area.
In which areas of Cheshire will Networks for Nature support nature recovery?
Spanning 60 square miles from the River Dee to the River Mersey, including Chester and Ellesmere Port.
Networks for Nature will work across Chester and Ellesmere Port, and also with private landowners and farmers in the area between the two urban areas and along the Gowy river catchment.
Take a look at our map of the project area.
The project supports bringing communities together, why is this important for nature recovery?
We’ve been delivering community participation programmes linked to UK wildlife for 10 years now and have developed a lot of experience of what works and what doesn’t. We know that individual action can be difficult, but collectively we can inspire each other and provide a network that will keep having impact long into the future. In the build up to this project we have done a lot of work behind-the-scenes to bring people together and to find out what the audiences that we will be working with need, to take action to improve spaces for wildlife and people. We know from experience that the training and networking activities that we organise develop a peer support network that helps to spur on more activity, for example an offer of providing help with tree planting, sharing expertise about hedge laying, or an offer to pass on additional seeds. Thanks to this funding we’ll be able to make real change across the whole landscape. This could really transform things for the environment in Cheshire and for the people who live here.
How can members get involved and support the project?
We’ll be working directly with schools, community groups, and community leaders to support them to improve public green spaces for people and wildlife – if you are in some way the steward of a green space in the project area and would like to get involved then please get in touch at UKwildlife@chesterzoo.org.
We will support farmers and landowners across the project area to manage, create, and restore wildlife-rich areas alongside domestic food production. To find out more or to register your interest please email UKwildlife@chesterzoo.org
You can also get involved as an individual, there will be a programme of activities where you can join us for a day of conservation action, wildlife recording, or developing conservation skills. You can also take action to improve your garden for UK wildlife by planting pollinator friendly plants, adding in water for wildlife and loads of other simple actions. To find out about upcoming events or how you can take individual action please email UKwildlife@chesterzoo.org
