Urban Nature
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Programme summary
We want to create the right spaces and conditions for nature to recover and thrive across our urban landscapes, working with partners, businesses and the many others who are already making a difference - and with local communities at the heart of our initiatives.
Within each specific area, we aim to create connected mosaics of habitats and where possible link these to larger greenspaces and the wider urban nature recovery network.
By connecting fragmented habitats and restoring natural processes and flows, we will help urban nature flourish alongside people, creating a healthier, more biodiverse built landscape and a better place to live for all.
By empowering residents and local groups, we will build on the significant amount of community-led work already underway, amplifying their efforts and aligning them with the region’s wider nature recovery plans so together we can all achieve more.
We will also look to align with other important regional priorities, such as creating better places to live, building climate resilience, meeting health and social needs, empowering community cohesion and inspiring local arts and culture.
We will showcase at least one flagship project that demonstrates the broad benefits of urban nature recovery, from biodiversity gains to enhanced community well-being – showing that better, greener neighbourhoods are achievable by supporting nature throughout our towns and cities.
Seeking diverse partnerships, enhancing nature recovery’s many co-benefits and finding new blends of public and private investment will allow us to scale up our ambitions - working with more communities and making a transformative difference across our urban networks.
The Programme will:
- Bring nature closer to people in our towns and cities, especially in places that are currently nature-poor
- Empower communities to act for nature
- Deploy nature-based solutions and green infrastructure in towns and cities – such as sustainable drainage systems, street trees and rain gardens – that increase climate resilience, reduce flood risk and heat stress and enhance people’s health and wellbeing
- Scope and deliver a flagship project or projects that create large-scale wild places in urban areas
Programme area
As well as in our major cities and towns such as Bristol, Bath, and Weston-super-Mare, we expect to be working in the built-up areas of South Gloucestershire, such as Kingswood, Hanham, Downend,Filton, Patchway and Bradley Stoke, with other towns like Yate, Thornbury, Clevedon, Portishead, Nailsea, Keynsham, and Norton-Radstock also benefiting.
The map shows the potential extent of the programme area overlaid with key focus areas from our regional Local Nature Recovery Strategy.
The reciprocal benefits of connecting people with the nature around them, especially in an urban environment, are now well established. Using this approach in the care of patients and prevention of illness is refreshing for staff, positive for communities and can help reduce the carbon footprint of the NHS
Dr Marion Steiner, GP and Chair of WENP Nature & Health Strategy Group
Key measures
Nature in Larger Spaces
Our public and semi-public green spaces such as parks, cemeteries, allotments, and land used for sports and amenities together represent great potential for nature recovery across a huge area. Together we can empower this potential by managing parks for nature, supporting community nature reserves and nature-rich food growing spaces, creating wildflower meadows and improving habitat connectivity through transport corridors like cycle paths and railway land and involving commercial and business sites with significant green spaces. Key areas of interest include the Avon Corridor (Keynsham/Bath to Bristol city centre), Frome Valley, Dundry and South Bristol Slopes and the green "wedge" into Weston-super-Mare from Haywood Village.
Nature in Development and Regeneration
This involves informing and inspiring nature-positive policy and planning decisions - integrating nature-friendly measures and access to green space into new and existing urban development standards, informed by Natural England’s GI framework. This could include urban greening, installing green roofs and nest boxes for swifts and bats and ensuring developments include accessible, nature-rich spaces. We want to explore the retrofitting of existing buildings to improve biodiversity and climate resilience by incorporating natural features like ponds, swales, and raingardens into urban designs. Rivers represent significant biodiversity corridors within urban areas , so we are planning for habitat enhancement and the easing of river barriers (as described in our Restoring Our Rivers programme).
Nature in our Streets and Gardens
Our urban streets and private gardens represent a vital network for nature connectivity across our towns and cities. Street-scale initiatives, such as enhanced tree cover, wildlife-friendly verges and sustainable urban drainage systems, will work in tandem with nature recovery across our private garden network – gardens great and small can provide vital ponds, native plant cover, pollinator banks, hedgehog-friendly spaces and many other benefits over a large area. By encouraging people to maximise the value of their own spaces for nature and helping connect them into the wider nature recovery network, we can help nature thrive and spread right across our urban areas.
Nature and Health
It is now well documented that access to nature is really beneficial for both physical and mental wellbeing. We will focus on creating accessible, nature-rich spaces, particularly in under served areas, to support health equity and reduce disparities in access to green spaces and experiences. As nature becomes more integrated into public health strategies, it will contribute to reducing long-term pressures on healthcare systems. “Green social prescribing” of activities such as community gardening and conservation volunteering are proven to reduce stress, anxiety, and depression. Nature-rich outdoor spaces around healthcare and community settings will support recovery from ill health, encourage physical activity and enhance social connections. By investing in urban nature as a preventative health measure, we can create healthier communities and support our over-stretched healthcare system for the long term.
Spotlight on species
By improving habitats and enhancing connectivity within our towns and cities, our programme will provide much-needed support for several vulnerable and iconic species.
Urban hedgerows and private gardens are important refuges for mammals such as the Hedgehogs, which have seen reduced breeding success and severe population declines because their habitat has become fragmented by urban development. Re-connecting our gardens and green spaces and re-establishing "hedgehog highways" will help reverse these worrying declines of this iconic creature.
Our House Sparrows, Swifts, and House Martins are also suffering significant declines, largely due to habitat loss and a lack of suitable nesting sites, with Swallows also suffering from the degradation of our urban water and wetland environments. Retrofitting buildings with nesting boxes and creating nature-rich networks of greenspaces in which to forage will be essential to their recovery.
Our vital pollinators will benefit from a range of nature-positive initiatives such as establishing wildflower meadows, pollinator-friendly verges and green roofs. We also aim to support some of our rarer pollinators such as Long-horned Bees and Glow Worms.
The critically endangered European Eel, which depends on clean, connected water systems for feeding, breeding and migration, will benefit from improvements in water quality and removing barriers across our urban rivers and streams. Water Voles, another vulnerable species, will benefit from the restoration of urban ponds and wetlands, as well as control measures to limit the spread of non-native predators like American mink.
Riverbank habitat restoration will also provide bats such as Greater and Lesser Horseshoe Bats with richer food sources as they use our urban waterways as safe commuter routes at night.
The Avon Gorge, a unique urban nature reserve, is home to several rare plant species, including the Bristol Onion and Service Tree, which are endemic to this limestone habitat. Restoring grasslands and woodlands and managing invasive species will help protect these rare plants whilst also safeguarding their wider ecosystems.
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Why is this a WENP priority?
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The majority of the West of England’s 1.1million residents live and work in our towns and cities, many of whom have limited access to nature and its associated benefits, so nature recovery is essential within our urban and suburban urban environments for community health, wellbeing and resilience.
Supporting nature across our towns and cities will help us address critical issues like urban heat stress and climate resilience, from cooling our streets to managing increasing amounts of storm water.
The social benefits of urban nature recovery are significant—accessible greenspaces improve mental health, foster community cohesion, and enhance the quality of life for residents, particularly in densely populated areas. Businesses who actively support nature recovery on their land and in their workflows are likely to see enhanced employee well-being and customer approval.
There are many important protected sites, nature reserves and watercourses in and around cities like Bristol and Bath, such as the Avon Gorge, the River Frome Corridor, Dundry Slopes, Troopers Hill, and the Bath Skyline.
Restoring and enhancing these sites allows us to develop green and blue urban infrastructure that supports healthy, vibrant communities while boosting biodiversity, in turn making the West of England’s urban areas more permeable to wildlife, allowing species to move more freely across our region and further increasing our climate resilience.
Delivery readiness
Some of our urban areas are already seeking accreditation via the national ‘Nature Towns and Cities’ scheme being developed by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Natural England and National Trust, so that we can demonstrate that our strategic choices are appropriate for both today and for the future and worth investing in.
Several existing initiatives and partnerships across the region are already contributing significantly to urban nature recovery. These projects embody the strong foundations on which we will build our programme:
- The Healthier with Nature Programme is the green social prescribing pilot for Bristol, North Somerset, and South Gloucestershire, helping people connect with a diverse network of nature-based projects to improve their physical and mental health. Funded by national partners, it focuses on reducing health inequalities and embedding nature-based practices into healthcare.
- “Team Wilder” from Avon Wildlife Trust empowers communities to take action for nature where they live. Through education and local conservation projects, it fosters wildlife-friendly spaces and encourages residents to engage directly with local nature recovery efforts.
- Bristol City Council's Managing More Green Space for Nature project aims to manage 30% of the council's land for nature, showcasing how targeted public spending can make a substantial impact.
- The Bristol Good Food Partnership is a collaboration promoting sustainable urban food growing, supporting local food production that supports biodiversity and promoting access to healthy, locally sourced food across the city.
- Somer Valley Rediscovered is a strategic Green Infrastructure programme in the Somer Valley which includes Radstock and Midsomer Norton in Bath and North East Somerset region. It aims to restore natural habitats and create green spaces that connect people with nature and enhance climate resilience by integrating green infrastructure ambitions into urban planning.
- The Bee Bold Awards: The West of England Combined Authority’s Bee Bold Awards recognise and inspire local efforts to create pollinator-friendly spaces, as part of the region’s ambition to become the UK’s “bee and pollinator capital”.
- The Bristol Climate and Nature Partnership Community Climate Action enables communities to lead on local climate and nature recovery projects, focusing on habitat restoration and urban greening to boost biodiversity and help reduce the ongoing challenges of climate change.
Case Study:
Really Wild Lockleaze
The Really Wild Lockleaze project, developed by Lockleaze residents in collaboration with local partners, demonstrates how urban communities can respond to the ecological emergency while also improving health and well-being.
Launched in response to concerns over habitat loss from new housing developments, the project focuses on creating connected spaces for wildlife using gardens, verges, and public green areas.
The project has successfully mobilised residents to take direct action by transforming their underused urban spaces into nature-rich environments. Local volunteers have transformed over 1,300 square meters of streets and verges into wildflower meadows - enhancing local biodiversity and providing essential habitat for pollinators like bees and butterflies. With strong community involvement, more than 1,200 native trees have been planted across Lockleaze. These new trees will sequester carbon, support wildlife and improve long term climate resilience.
Really Wild Lockleaze also provides guidance on managing private gardens to support local wildlife and promotes hedgehog-friendly streets by encouraging new hedgehog highways.
Regular wildlife walks led by local naturalists help residents reconnect with their surroundings, encouraging mindfulness and wellbeing through nature immersion and there are plans to integrate green social prescribing into plans for nature-based health improvements to help tackle and prevent important societal health challenges such as anxiety, depression and obesity.
Really Wild Lockleaze shows the transformative power of community-led urban nature recovery and it will inform and inspire other urban nature initiatives across the region and beyond.
Our call for support
The Urban Nature programme is currently in the conceptual phase. It has broad support from partners across the West of England. We need funding in order to develop the concept into a deliverable programme of work, in particular scoping a flagship project or projects and defining how existing initiatives will be sustained and knitted together to contribute to the overall programme.
We also aim to leverage private funding, including developer contributions and businesses supporting nature in their local areas. Partnerships with businesses offer further funding opportunities, with urban nature projects providing visible, tangible contributions to corporate social responsibility goals.
We are also exploring co-delivery with other sectors, particularly health, transport, and climate resilience. The programme will explore blended funding models, where public, private, and community-led initiatives work together to achieve multiple benefits, such as enhanced green infrastructure and improved public health outcomes.
The programme will continue to focus on scaling up existing community-driven efforts, such as those seen in the Community Pollinator Fund and Community Climate Action projects. These smaller, local initiatives—though currently modest in scale—are collectively making a significant impact on nature recovery and have exciting potential for large-scale expansion.
By combining the grassroots expertise and passion of local communities with institutional funding and support, our aim is to foster a vibrant, sustainable, and equitable urban landscape that benefits both people and wildlife, both today and for generations to come.
We are looking for partners to support us on the journey to turn our ambitions into reality. Whether you are a potential delivery partner, community group, business, donor, or something else, please get in touch today to learn how you can support us.
Lead contacts:
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