Nature gets £1.8million to help it blossom

Rochdale Canal

Nature is on the road to recovery in Greater Manchester, pollinated by £1.8million from the Green Recovery Challenge Fund.

The bid, fronted by the newly established Greater Manchester Environment Fund (GMEF), put forward a programme of priority projects that will establish a network for nature across the county, including improved habitats along the Rochdale and Ashton canals.

The Greater Manchester Environment Fund (GMEF) is being established to deliver Greater Manchester’s ambition for a “clean, carbon-neutral, climate resilient city region with a thriving natural environment”, by aligning public and philanthropic funding, attracting private investment, prioritising limited resources and facilitating collaborative bids. 

Managed by the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside, the fund will be launched in spring, but with the success of a collaborative bid to the Green Recovery Challenge Fund, some projects will start now to demonstrate a desire to provide networks for nature to flourish. Furthermore, 37 jobs will be created and safeguarded, including 12 traineeships. 

The Wildlife Trust’s Director of Nature and Wellbeing Daveen Wallis: “This is brilliant news. The fund will reflect its bee brand, pollinating projects with financial support so they can blossom and be part of the recovery of nature in Greater Manchester.”

The bid is a collaboration between Environmental Non-Government Organisations who work across Greater Manchester and have been hardest hit by the pandemic. Mersey Rivers Trust, Canal and River Trust, Northern Roots, RSPB, City of Trees, The Conservation Volunteers, Cheshire Wildlife Trust and the Great Manchester Wetlands Partnership have come together to support Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s Build Back Greener campaign.

The aim is to fund natural flood management projects and peatland restoration, transforming areas into carbon stores. There are pioneering plans to develop areas to attract private investment in carbon capture and storage, helping in the battle against climate change.

The fund will also support volunteering projects and campaigns to get children and families out into nature to improve health and wellbeing and encourage them to make lifestyle changes to benefit them and the natural world around them.

Councillor Andrew Western, GMCA Lead for the Green City-Region, said: “In Greater Manchester we’re making good progress towards the goals of our Five-Year Environment Plan, and those ambitions remain at the heart of our plans to lead a sustainable recovery from the pandemic. This Green Recovery Challenge Fund grant is further recognition of the leading role being played by local authorities, charities, and community groups across our city-region in achieving those goals.

“The funding will help deliver some of the essential work being undertaken to safeguard wildlife habitats, develop natural flood management projects and peatland carbon stores, and teach families and young children about the natural world on our doorsteps.

“Nature is resilient, but we need to support that resilience. This grant is a really positive boost to our plans to protect our natural environment for the benefit of both our wildlife and our communities.” 

The Green Recovery Challenge Fund is a short-term competitive fund to kick-start environmental renewal whilst creating and retaining a range of jobs. It is open to environmental charities and their partners to deliver projects in England, delivering against the goals of the Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan, whilst helping to sustain and build capacity in the sector.