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Bristol Wild Spaces project will offer mental and physical health benefits for pupils and help vulnerable wildlife survive nature and climate crisis.
More than 2,000 children across Bristol and Weston-super-Mare are to help create Wild Spaces for butterflies and moths at their schools.
Pupils at 47 primary schools will create mini meadows, plant window boxes full of wildflowers and count the butterflies and moths that come to visit.
The 18-month project, run by Butterfly Conservation and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, will give children in economically- and nature-deprived areas regular access to green space and the mental and physical health benefits that offers.
Butterfly Conservation is now looking for more schools to get involved to help beleaguered butterflies and moths survive the nature and climate crisis.
Butterfly Conservation’s Bristol and Weston Wild Spaces Project Officer, Angus Walker, said: "I am really excited to be leading this project: this is a huge opportunity to help children across our area to care for nature on their doorstep, make a real difference for wildlife and get the wellbeing benefits which come from that, like helping reduce anxiety. Having worked with young people in outdoor settings for a while, I see the pure joy they get from connecting with nature and that tells me there's a massive appetite from people to live in places that aren't just good for themselves but where nature thrives as well."
PedAll is celebrating after being awarded over £380,000 from the National Lottery Community Fund to help make cycling in the New Forest available to people of all ages and abilities.
The money will help provide more guided rides for local disability groups and individuals with additional needs and recruit a new ride leader.
PedAll is run by the charity Friends of PedAll and the New Forest National Park Authority, supported by the NHS, the charity SCARF and Forestry England.
The organisation is supported by over 50 dedicated volunteers and operates from two sites – at Burley and Ashurst. Over 30 schools, colleges, residential care homes and charitable organisations were supported by PedAll in 2023.
It has one of the most diverse fleets of adapted bicycles in the country that can support a wide range of physical and mental health conditions.
The community hub on the Ashurst Hospital site has extra activities including a drop-in bike repair service, bike skills training for young people with additional needs, Pedall volunteer training, social and confidence building rides, alongside guided rides for the additional-needs community.
The new funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, which distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes and is the largest community funder in the UK, is spread over five years and will help develop a more sustainable financial future.
The funding means it will be able to run 250 weekly group ride courses each year; offer 200 ‘open ride’ sessions per year and cycle with over 4,000 riders per year.
The OEP is investigating the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) Secretary of State (SoS) and Natural England over possible failures to comply with environmental law in relation to Special Protection Areas (SPAs) for wild birds, it announced today (March 18, 2024).
The investigation will seek to determine whether Defra SoS and Natural England have failed to comply with environmental law relating to SPAs on land. This includes possible failures to implement recommendations given by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) and other conservation public bodies on the classification and adaptation of SPAs and in respect of their general duties to protect and maintain wild bird populations.
SPAs are legally designated sites that protect rare and threatened wild birds, such as curlew, bittern and common tern found in England. SPAs are internationally important areas for breeding, overwintering, and migrating birds. They have also been shown to deliver positive outcomes for wider biodiversity.
Wild bird populations continue to decline across England, with 70 species now on the Birds of Conservation Concern Red List1 – a number that has almost doubled in 25 years. The Severn Estuary, the North Pennine Moors, and The Wash are some examples of England’s SPAs, with the latter regularly supporting over 400,000 waterbirds over the winter.
The JNCC and other conservation public bodies have carried out reviews of SPAs that focus on land and coastal sites, in doing so, they then made recommendations to Defra on the creation of new SPAs and adaptation of existing SPAs in order to protect and maintain certain wild bird populations.
As part of its wider work the OEP will also seek to understand the progress of SPA reviews in the marine environment.
Katie-Jo Luxton, conservation director at the RSPB said: “The UK’s wildlife is in trouble, almost half of our species are in decline and one in six is at risk of being lost completely from our land, sea and sky. We are in a nature and climate emergency and our network of Special Protection Areas (SPAs) should be fundamental to our efforts to halt and reverse wildlife decline.
“These are the areas that have been identified as being critical for wildlife. And yet nothing has been done to address the shortcomings of the UK’s network of SPAs despite over two decades of reports and recommendations to the four governments of the UK from their own advisors. Some are in poor condition, clear recommendations for the governance and adaptation of existing SPAs have been accepted but not acted on, and significant gaps in the network – both on land and at sea, remain unfilled.”
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