Restoring of nature involves everyone says Erin McDaid of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust

Almost 30 years ago, I was lucky enough to get start work with Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust as volunteer coordinator for our work across the city of Nottingham. ­— Writes Erin McDaid,

Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust.

Being a local lad, growing up just four miles from the city centre, this was an exciting opportunity for me straight out of university, at a time when I was very much ‘wet behind the ears’ in terms of nature conservation.

While somewhat daunting, it was wonderful to have the opportunity to meet people from all walks of life who shared a passion for nature.

The focus of the volunteering I was coordinating was largely practical help on our small nature reserves, such as litter picking and tree planting.

There were other ways people could help Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, such as through organising events, and while all the tasks benefited nature in some way, the roles were very much focused on helping our charity and didn’t necessarily inspire people to do more in their local community or even to take action for nature at home.

As my role evolved over the years into wider communications, I had less day-to-day involvement in our community engagement.

However, many years on, I was delighted to get the chance to manage our exciting Wildlife In The City project. This had real parallels with my earlier work, but the focus was much broader.

It encompassed other green spaces, including parks, community allotments and gardens, not just sites cared for by the wildlife trust.

We also sought to support people who wanted to take action for nature by building people’s confidence and skills.

We reached out to communities and made efforts to break down barriers to engagement and we focused on enabling young people to play an active role in nature conservation ­— an approach now firmly embedded in everything we do at Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust.

In developing our new strategy, Creating A Wilder Nottinghamshire By 2030, we recognised early on that it would be vital to focus on encouraging people to take action for nature and climate on their doorstep.

Alongside mobilising people to support our vital work, it was clear we also had to mobilise people to do whatever they could, wherever they live to give us any chance of successfully tackling the ecological and climate crises.

This vital focus on mobilisation and encouraging individual and community action is why I’m excited that we have been successful, alongside many other wildlife trusts across the UK, in securing funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to deliver Nextdoor Nature programmes.

If we are to succeed in inspiring and empowering people to take urgent action in their daily lives, we must ensure that we are engaging with people that have perhaps not traditionally been involved in nature conservation or have even felt excluded.

People are key to nature’s recovery.

We depend on the natural world for our survival, yet we are increasingly disconnected from nature.

At a time when public awareness of the ecological issues is at an all-time high, our collective behaviour does not yet match our level of concern.

With huge pressures on habitats and time running out for an increasing number of species, we need to square this circle quickly ­— to move more people from being aware of environmental issues to actually doing something about them.

Nextdoor Nature is a brilliant project supporting communities to take action for nature across the country, thanks to £5m funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

In Nottingham, we are supporting people to make space for nature where they live and work. Nextdoor Nature will provide people with the advice and support they need to help nature on their doorstep, and leave a lasting natural legacy to mark The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

Take action for nature:

This particular project focuses on a number of areas of the city where people are less likely to be connected to nature.

However, we are keen to hear from people living and working across the county who would like to make more space for nature in their community.

For more details about the project and how to contact the team, visit nottinghamshirewildlife.org/ wilder-nottinghamshire/ nextdoor-nature

If you are already taking action for nature on your doorstep, help us show decision makers that people really do care by mapping your action ­— so we can build up a picture of action hotspots across the county to log your actions visit nottinghamshirewildlife.org/map-your-action

Our website also has details of our nature reserves across the county, upcoming local events and our strategy and current campaigns.