Major National Lottery Investment to Build a Nature Service for Wales
As a founding partner and supporter of The Nature Service/ Y Gwasanaeth Natur, we’re pleased to share the latest progress on developing the organisation.
The Nature Service is a nationally coordinated initiative working across Wales to support nature recovery by strengthening skills, capacity and access to opportunities. The Nature Service does not deliver activities directly. Instead, it creates a visible, trusted identity that helps people from all backgrounds find and engage with education, training, volunteering, employment and early career pathways linked to restoring nature and responding to the climate emergency.
The recent State of Natural Resources Report (SoNaRR) recognises the central importance of strengthening these social foundations, and highlights The Nature Service as an emerging example of the enabling infrastructure needed to deliver.
Funding for the next phase
The Nature Service has successfully bid for over £460,000 of funding from the National Lottery Community Fund to take forward the next stage of development:
- Developing a national website and directory – a clear gateway to volunteering, training, education and early career opportunities linked to nature restoration. A coordinated communications and engagement campaign will highlight real pathways into nature-based work and help build a stronger sense of a national movement in service of nature.
- An innovation research partnership with The Open University in Wales to explore models to ensure every young person in Wales has access to meaningful nature-based experience, and how participation can be recognised to support progression into further learning, training and employment.
Organisations interested in collaborating with The Nature Service, or highlighting relevant opportunities through the emerging platform, are encouraged to get in touch as this next phase begins.
Cyfle Tendro: Cyfathrebu, Ymgysylltu, Cyflwyno Ymgyrchoedd a Datblygu Cyfeiriadur | Tender opportunity: Communications, Engagement and Digital Development
The Nature Service is seeking to appoint an agency (or consortium) to support the next phase of its development.
This is an opportunity to help develop the next phase, focusing on the core foundations of The Nature Service, including its identity, communications and engagement approach, and a digital platform to help people find and access opportunities across Wales.
See full details here English | Cymraeg
Restoring nature at scale isn’t only an environmental challenge – it’s a human one. Without the skills, workforce and public engagement to deliver restoration, our ambitions for nature recovery, climate resilience and good green jobs simply won’t be realised. This funding allows us to start building the platform that helps more people from all backgrounds get involved, so Wales can build the capacity needed to rise to this enormous challenge.
To learn more about CIEEM’s involvement in the Nature Service, please contact mandymarsh@cieem.net
