A NEW fundraising appeal has been launched by Warwickshire Wildlife Trust today, Tuesday, March 30, to bring wildlife back to Solihull, Coventry and the wider county.
The Trust says this is their most ambitious plan ever and reflects an urgent need to act now.
The appeal goal is to raise £3million and create a Nature Recovery Fund to buy land.
The target has been set to support local action on the three biggest threats the planet faces – the ecological crisis, the climate crisis and the human health crisis, particularly the disconnection of people from nature.
The Nature Recovery Fund will be used to buy land of low wildlife value, to improve this land by restoring lost habitats and to reconnect people with nature.
The aim is also to help the Trust help others do the same on their land and double the land managed for wildlife by 2030.
In the past the focus was on saving special places, however this new land will be for the creation of new special places.
Thanks to some substantial recent donations and legacies, the Trust already has £1.5million in its Nature Recovery Fund.
Now this appeal aims to double this, to create a £3m fund to bring back Warwickshire’s wildlife.
In January 2021, the One Planet Summit saw 50 countries pledge to protect 30 per cent of land and sea for nature, in a bid to tackle the unravelling of our delicate ecosystems, halt the mass decline in wildlife and combat climate change.
The UK is part of the coalition but was ahead of the curve, and in September 2020 the Government committed to restoring 30 per cent of the UK to nature by 2030.
Craig Bennett, chief executive of the Wildlife Trust, whilst welcoming that commitment said: “We now need to see a much greater level of urgent action on the ground to deliver on the ambition set out by the Prime Minister, and to put nature into recovery.”
The aim is to create a Wilder Warwickshire where 30 per cent of land is managed for wildlife by 2030 in ways that see the local and wider natural systems begin to heal.
The average price of land in Warwickshire is approximately £10,000 per acre and Warwickshire Wildlife Trust needs to buy at a large enough scale to create new, connected habitats for local wildlife.
The Trust is asking local people to donate and be part of nature’s recovery at www.warwickshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/appeal
Solihull residents can hear more about the fundraising appeal by registering for the first in a series of webinars on the Nature Recovery Fund Appeal.
The first one is on Tuesday, April 20 at 7pm and can be booked here: www.nature-recovery-fund-bwb.eventbrite.co.uk
