The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has today awarded £600,000 from the Rewild London Fund to 19 projects that will help to rewild the city and recover nature. These projects will help restore wildlife habitats including rivers, help species such as water vole thrive, create meadows for pollinators and new wetlands for birds, as well as enable the monitoring of iconic species such as hedgehogs to inform projects to reverse their decline.
The announcement comes on the day that Enfield Council are releasing two beavers into wetlands in Enfield, supporting a series of projects designed to rewild the city and help restore nature.
The beaver reintroduction supports wider plans to improve the green belt including the creation of new woodland with 100,000 trees, supported from the Mayor’s Woodland Creation Fund.
The 19 rewilding projects across the city will enhance and connect 54 of London’s most important places for wildlife – Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINCs) - and create more natural habitats for plants and animals to thrive. Over 250 hectares of priority habitat will be restored or created through the fund, the equivalent of ten St James’ Parks.
The Mayor’s funding will also support projects to use cutting-edge new technology, including drones, camera traps and eDNA testing* to boost efforts to recover nature and rewild London.
- Link the SINCs - (Sutton) The project will seek to test how recycled building materials can repurposed to create habitats for the small blue, chalk hill blue and dark green fritillary butterflies
- King George’s Park - (Wandsworth) This project will create new meadows to provide a vital habitat corridor for pollinators. Volunteers can get involved with the creation of new habitats and shire horses will be used to prepare the ground for wild flowers.
- Get inVOLEd – (Kingston) Water voles have been extinct from the Hogsmill River since 2017. This project will reintroduce water voles and work with the local community to improve the river habitat corridor for them. Bioacoustic recording devices and camera traps will be used to monitor their progress.
- Spider Park – (Hillingdon) Rewild London funding will join up existing SINCs along the Yeading Brook by creating new wildlife habitats (ponds, wetlands, meadows and scrub) to help make this park a more habitable environment for nature.
- Greenway Pollinator Trail – (Newham) The Greenway is a hidden gem in East London: it is a 7km traffic-free pedestrian and cycle route and green corridor. The Greenway Pollinator Trail will create a ribbon of new habitats for bees, hoverflies, butterflies and other wild pollinators mapped across the whole length of the Greenway for people to enjoy. QR codes linking to educational resources will help enhance the experience for visitors of all ages.
- Enfield Grazing – (Enfield) This project will introduce large animal grazing to three sites to restore habitats and link Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation. The council will work with land management students at Capel Manor College to provide practical training opportunities that will supplement their studies.
Sadiq believes access to green space is a matter of social justice and a key means by which health inequalities may be reduced. The projects that have been funded will bring nature closer to Londoners and help fulfil one of the Mayor’s electoral commitments – ensuring that all Londoners live within a 10-minute walk of green space.
To further support London’s green revival, the Mayor will convene a rewilding taskforce next month to explore opportunities for more ambitious and innovative projects. From restoring rivers to reintroducing species, experts will join a ‘rewilding roundtable’ to help make London - the world’s first National Park City - a global leader in urban rewilding. The Taskforce will be chaired by Shirley Rodrigues, Deputy Mayor of Environment & Energy with Nicky Gavron (London Recovery Board) and Ben Goldsmith (Defra) acting as co-vice chairs. Other invited organisations include the London Wildlife Trust, Natural History Museum, Rewild Britain, RSPB, and Citizen Zoo, alongside representation from London boroughs, development firms, youth, and the environmental news media.
London’s green spaces, which include parks, woodlands, nature reserves and bodies of water, all have a crucial role to play in tackling the climate and ecological emergencies we face. Not only do they help nature recovery they also keep London cool, provide shade, reduce the risk of flooding and are vitally important for our health and mental wellbeing.
Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “During the pandemic, we came to appreciate just how important green spaces and contact with nature are for our health and well-being. That’s why I’m doing everything I can to ensure that all Londoners, especially those without outside space, can access local parks and meadows.
“These projects will not only help to improve London’s biodiversity but will also help enrich the lives of Londoners.
“As well as funding projects through the Rewild London Find, I’m also bringing together a group of experts to consider further opportunities for rewilding the city so we can continue making London an even better home for wildlife and even more enjoyable place to live.
RSPB’s Chief Executive Beccy Speight said: “Nature is in crisis – as the State of Nature report makes clear, around half of UK species are in decline and 15 per cent are threatened with being lost completely. So nature needs urgent help – and the pandemic has demonstrated just how much people also need nature and access to it. Polling commissioned by the RSPB in 2020 found that nine out of ten respondents agreed that increasing the amount of accessible nature-rich green space would help to improve people’s health, well-being and happiness. Today’s announcement by Mayor Sadiq Khan is good news for nature and good news for London’s communities, signalling an important step towards a healthier future for the city, and the RSPB looks forward to playing our role through the London Rewilding Taskforce”.
ENDS
NOTES –
Rewilding offers the possibility to support the recovery of nature, by create more natural spaces for a range of wildlife - from insects through to large mammals and birds. It can also involve the reintroduction of species which have been lost from the landscape. Taking this approach will help enhance biodiversity and preserve and improve our green spaces – all of which can positively impact on health and wellbeing, foster a sustainable economy, and help address climate change. However, rewilding must be done with careful consideration in a complex urban environment such as London’s to ensure it works and benefits both people and wildlife. The main opportunities for rewilding will be found in the Green Belt although opportunities to support and enhance nature can take place across the capital in parks, back gardens and even on buildings.
*eDNA testing is a pioneering method which is used to evaluate the presence or absence of a certain species, it involves taking samples from habitats which are then tested for residual DNA.
Most of London’s most valuable sites for nature are recognised as Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINCs). There are around 1,600 SINCs across the city, spread across all boroughs, and covering nearly 20 per cent of its surface area. These sites, stretching from the inner city to the Green Belt, are London’s core wildlife network, home to some of the city’s most iconic and special species and the habitats they require.
Find out more about the Rewild London Fund: www.london.gov.uk/programmes-and-strategies/environment-and-climate-change/parks-green-spaces-and-biodiversity/rewild-london-fund
State of Nature report – https://nbn.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/State-of-Nature-2019-UK-full-report.pdf
2020 RSPB poling - https://www.rspb.org.uk/globalassets/downloads/recovering-together-report/recovering-together-report_nature-and-green-recovery_rspbyougov_june-2020.pdf