We want great places to live that are both good for people and good for wildlife. We promote this in our Space for Nature pillar.
We want nature to be normal, for children to grow up with wild and green spaces to explore. So, increasing biodiversity and capturing carbon through nature is of vital importance, and communities are best placed to improve both.
The Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust is helping us to map our community, whilst understanding what valuable habitats we already have. We’re putting together a plan to decide how to invite nature into our community, create new habitats, link habitats with corridors, and improve existing habitats. School playgrounds can be used, disused areas, verges, window boxes – there is always an opportunity to support and encourage nature to thrive.
One of the benefits of protecting, restoring and creating these habitats in our community, while at the same time helping wildlife recover in the best locations, is that we can help create and protect carbon stores, offering a nature-based solution to the climate crises.
This Pillar has activities for all ages, and it doesn’t matter if you have absolutely no experience of wild spaces, there are plenty of adventures to take part in.
Other Greening projects beyond Ringwood are yielding big results, with some communities taking off on bike rides around their area to identify relevant Spaces for Nature! They have produced beautifully constructive reports which they will follow to support nature into the future. This is where experts can really help us with advice and experience which they bring to everyone built on years of working in this field.
Communities are finding out what already lives in their wild spaces, and it can be such an eye-opening exercise to learn what rare species are living beside us, or what habitat we can help create. It can be public spaces, community owned spaces, council owned, privately owned, and most effective of all are our own back gardens!
Spaces for Nature can support conversation, mental health, keeping cool in the summer, and simple connections with a wild environment can make us relax and feel calmer – or put another way, it starts to fill us with joy.
Throughout the year all the Five Pillars come together to run joint events. This shows how every pillar overlaps, for example, planting a tree in your garden can positively affect the health of your family and provide shade to sit under in the summer as well as providing shelter for wildlife.
All we need to do is take a step towards taking part! When the community supports nature, magic happens!