Charity awards funds to rewilding schemes with focus on community and wellbeing
Seven projects around Britain will each receive up to £15,000 from Rewilding Britain for their work to restore nature and engage local communities.
A series of rewilding projects which are engaging local communities or working to improve health and wellbeing have been awarded up to £15,000 each.
The seven nature restoration schemes across Britain have each received funding from charity Rewilding Britain’s Rewilding Innovation Fund, for work that has a strong community element or focus on boosting people’s health and wellbeing.
It is the first official round of awards from the fund, set up to provide financial backing for locally-led land and marine rewilding projects, following a pilot earlier in the year.
Those securing funding range from a project in Essex, which is integrating farming and wildlife and working with a charity to provide nature-based camps for mental health, to plans for a rewilding festival in Yorkshire, and restoring sea grass and working with local communities in Scotland.
Sara King, Rewilding Britain’s rewilding manager, said: “We’re delighted to be able to use this round of funding to highlight the importance of rewilding projects that have a strong base and support in the local community and also recognise the tangible benefits rewilding can have on people’s health and wellbeing.
“There is a wealth of research that illustrates how strengthening connections with nature and spending time in wild places can dramatically improve our mental and physical health, and also the wellbeing of our communities, and these projects are helping to do just that.”
The seven successful schemes are:
– Spains Hall Estate, Essex, which is embarking on a land use change scheme over nearly 500 hectares (1,200 acres) and will be integrating work by the Wilderness Foundation – a charity working with the NHS on social prescribing and other mental health initiatives – through nature-based camps.
– The Yorkshire Rewilding Network, which aims to connect up people interested in restoring nature in the region, which will use the funding for more community outreach including a rewilding festival to help “spread the hope and joy of rewilding further still”.
– The Community of Arran Seabed Trust (Coast), which has helped the recovery of marine habitats around Arran and the Clyde, Scotland, and the funding will be used to help further develop community engagement with decisions about the seas around their island home.
– The Southern Uplands Partnership in Scotland will use funding to work with partners to engage communities and landowners about the future of the Tall-Hartfell Wild Land Area project, a rewilding scheme covering almost 50,000 hectares (124,000 acres).
– Knoydart Climate Action Group in Scotland will use their funding to map and assess the potential for restoring the Inverie seagrass meadow and exploring work with local community groups.
– Mull and Iona Community Trust, which works to combat issues of geographical isolation for the communities on those Scottish west coast islands, will use the funding to develop a collective vision for rewilding Adura Community Forest, to restore native woodlands.
– New landowner-led charity West Dorset Wilding will use its award to develop rewilding aims and increase public understanding of efforts to restore nature to the point it can look after itself, along with the wider benefits for the environment and wellbeing that can deliver.
The next opportunity to apply for the fund, which is funded by Evolution Education Trust, Charles Langdale, The Vintry and Dormywood Trust, will be in early spring 2023, Rewilding Britain said.
