Green spaces are linked strongly to positive effects on human health and wellbeing: physical, mental and social. Creating space for nature is all about providing more access and interaction with nature – especially in dense, urban environments – so our natural inclination towards nature can be satisfied and people can show how much they care.
How are communities in the UK already increasing access to nature through green spaces? Read on to read or listen to a couple of inspiring examples. If you are already doing something in this area, jump here if you want to do something bigger.
Inspiration read
Bringing green spaces and nature to communities
Nature Neighbourhoods
Working together, WWF UK, the RSPB and the National Trust are the driving force behind Nature Neighbourhoods, a new two-year support programme that is helping 18 different community organisations to create and implement people-powered plans for nature in their neighbourhoods. The national charities are working closely with the local organisations involved, from community centres to social enterprises and food growing collectives across the UK, supporting them by co-designing activities, boosting their volunteering schemes and with funding for specific local needs – to help more people benefit from different spaces created locally for nature.
Thinking bigger by acting smaller
On the one hand, big nature organisations do brilliant work at the national level, often working on policy issues and driving important awareness campaigns. On the other hand, community organisations on the ground are best placed, with their credibility and connections, to do good work at a neighbourhood level in many of our towns and cities. Bridging the gap between these two, Nature Neighbourhoods joins the dots by boosting local leadership with added capacity and capabilities, so nature can play a bigger role in what matters most to the people locally and within each urban area.
Nourishing connections
Access to nature across the UK is very unequal, with ethnically-diverse communities and people living on low incomes more likely to live in areas without accessible or high-quality wild places or parks. Working with grassroots organisations from these communities creates new spaces for nature and for different communities to show their love of nature; new opportunities for people outside the traditional environmental sector to become part of a more inclusive nature conservation and regeneration effort. Hear from two of these communities – Granton Community Gardeners and Lincoln Greeners – in their own words, in All Nature: Nourishing Connections.
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Inspiration listen
Do Something Bigger
What would inspire you to do something bigger for climate and nature? In this, the first episode of the Carbon Copy Podcast series, Do Something Bigger, we introduce our year-long campaign: 25…
Do something bigger
Everyone – from individuals to companies, councils and communities – can do something bigger for nature by creating space for it in our everyday lives. If enough of us demonstrate our love for nature, we can help nature recover and begin to thrive again.
Urban green infrastructure
infrastructure in our cities consists not only of big public parks but also of small gardens and allotments, urban trees, living walls and green roofs. Community efforts that look after nature on our doorstep enable more people to appreciate its essential importance and benefits to our mental wellbeing. Energy Garden is one such effort, helping communities to develop their own garden spaces at stations across the overground train network in London. Over 300 people are involved on a regular basis across 26 gardens that impact millions of passengers and commuters. These relatively small urban green spaces make a big difference to a lot of people; stations with Energy Gardens consistently have the highest customer satisfaction ratings across the entire London network.
Environmental policies at work
By considering how you create space for nature through your company’s policies, finances, workplaces and supply chains, you can help restore natural habitats and ecosystems, making your organisation more resilient too. Nature’s Workforce provides resources and conversation guides to kick-start this conversation and changes at work. Ongoing sustainability certification from leading experts like Planet Mark helps keep your organisation – from big corporations to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – on track, each year. What would nature say? A powerful way of putting nature at the heart of every boardroom decision is to give nature ‘a seat at the board’. Faith In Nature is the first company in the world to do so, giving nature a voice and a vote in how their organisation does business with a better future in mind.
Become ‘nature positive’
Is your area deprived of green space and in need of better green infrastructure? Check out the nature section in the latest UK Council Climate Action Scorecards that looks at what councils are doing to protect and increase biodiversity in the area through their direct actions, their management of green spaces and their requirements for developers to make a net gain in the biodiversity impact of new construction projects. How much room is there for you to grow? Instead of putting nature second, it should be second nature for all councils to publish and implement local area plans that are ‘nature positive’ – alongside their plans to become net zero.
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Nature
With special thanks
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