Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fund for Nature – Guidance for Applicants

 

What is the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fund for Nature?

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fund for Nature is a revolving fund to deliver enhancements in nature in line with the ambition to double the quality and quantity of rich wildlife habitats and natural green space, and improve access to them in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

The Fund was established through a grant from the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority and is managed by Natural Cambridgeshire, the Local Nature Partnership for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

What the Fund supports

The Fund will support large projects that attract external investment, that can create a stream of revenue and ideally be financially self-sustaining, with an ability to return and revolve the capital back into the Fund and thereby enable it to fund further projects. There will also be a focus on financial innovation, increasing the benefits that projects deliver, such as climate-change mitigation and adaptation, health and wellbeing, prosperity, flood prevention, and/or water quality and retention, and learning how to put a value on these benefits. Interest free loans of up to 7 years, with interest from 7 to 10 years are available in this round.

Why it matters

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough are home to some of the UK’s most treasured natural environments but face significant challenges such as habitat loss and reduced biodiversity. The Fund provides a vital opportunity to support landscape projects that create lasting benefits for nature and communities alike.

Who can apply?

Expressions of Interest are welcome from:

  • Landowners and farmers integrating productive land use with biodiversity goals.
  • Local authorities and public bodies enhancing community green spaces.
  • Conservation organisations planning large-scale habitat restoration projects.

Larger projects will be prioritised, with repayable funding of up to £300,000 available. Projects must match funding from other sources and demonstrate potential to leverage further investment or generate revenue.

How to apply

Expressions of interest to be received on the attached form by email not later than midnight on Monday 24th March 2025.

Expression of Interest Form can be downloaded here.

The Guidance for Applicants can be downloaded here.

Full applications from those chosen will be invited in April 2025, to be received by 18 June 2024. Funding agreements will be issued to those selected by 30 September 2025. Projects to begin work no later than January 2026. This process will be repeated every six months until the Fund is exhausted.

For further information, please email fund@naturalcambridgeshire.org.uk.

 

 

Second funding round opens soon for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fund for Nature

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fund for Nature is to launch a second funding round, opening its Call for Expressions of Interest on Tuesday 4th February 2025. The Fund aims to enhance biodiversity and increase access to natural green spaces, aligning with the ambition to double the quantity and quality of wildlife habitats in the region.

Why it matters

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough are home to some of the UK’s most treasured natural environments but face significant challenges such as habitat loss and reduced biodiversity. The Fund provides a vital opportunity to support landscape projects that create lasting benefits for nature and communities alike.

Who can apply?

Expressions of Interest are welcome from:
Landowners and farmers integrating productive land use with biodiversity goals.
Local authorities and public bodies enhancing community green spaces.
Conservation organisations planning large-scale habitat restoration projects.

What the Fund supports

The Fund focuses on projects that:

• Attract external investment.
• Generate sustainable revenue and aim to be financially self-sustaining.
• Deliver measurable benefits like climate change adaptation, health improvements, flood prevention, and water quality enhancement.

Larger projects will be prioritised, with repayable funding of up to £300,000 available. Projects must match funding from other sources and demonstrate potential to leverage further investment or generate revenue.

How to find out more

A webinar for prospective applicants will take place on Tuesday, 11th February, 2:00–3:30 PM, featuring updates on the first approved project, the Fleam Dyke Project, and guidance for the upcoming funding round.

Register here: https://shorturl.at/bYxcq

Matthew Bullock, Trustee of Natural Cambridgeshire and Chair of the Fund for Nature Committee, said:

“The Fund for Nature is focusing on large-scale projects to help farmers and landowners create habitats that support diverse species and restore wildlife in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. It offers capital for these projects, which must be self-sustaining, matched by other contributions, and repayable. The goal is to promote the use of Green Finance, including biodiversity, woodland, carbon, and water credits, to help double Nature’s footprint in the region.”

About the Fund

The Fund was established through a grant from the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority and is managed by Natural Cambridgeshire.

How to apply

Guidance for Applicants and an Expression of Interest form will be published on 4th February.

For further information

Email: fund@naturalcambridgeshire.org.uk

 

Photo: Fleam Dyke nr Balsham, Cambridgeshire. Credit: Wildlife Trust BCN.

Communities across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough are sowing the seeds for nature’s recovery!

Thirteen projects from across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough are the first to receive a small grant from the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fund for Nature in endeavours to ‘Double Nature’ where they live. From Wisbech in the north of the county to Shepreth and in south, community groups, environmental charities, churches, schools and Parish Councils are taking forward projects for the benefit of nature and people with funds which have been provided by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority.

Projects include: the creation of a community garden in an inner city area; the development of a wetland area for education and biodiversity in a community orchard; tree-planting adjacent to the River Great Ouse; a tern raft in a country park; native orchid planting in a village wildflower area; and the installation of bird nesting boxes, feeding stations and insect boxes to encourage biodiversity in a school’s grounds.

The Fund for Nature has been enabled with funding from the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, with the fund being managed by Natural Cambridgeshire, the Local Nature Partnership for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, working in partnership with the Cambridgeshire Community Foundation, who are experts in local grant giving.

Grants of up to £5000 are available for local groups for capital items that will enable them to double nature on their doorstep. Applications that were submitted to the second round will be announced shortly. Further rounds are dependent on the availability of funding.

Natural Cambridgeshire’s Chair, Martin Doel said: “We are immensely grateful to the CPCA for recognising the importance of local actions in achieving our shared ambitions for doubling nature. Local groups have a vital role to play in helping to create places where both nature and people can thrive, and we look forward to being able to encourage more communities to take more action for nature where they live in the future.”

Cambridgeshire Community Foundation’s Director, Michael O’Toole said: “The Fund for Nature is enabling transformative local action for nature – from inner-city gardens to wetland development. The supported projects demonstrate just how passionate our communities are about protecting and enhancing nature right on their doorstep. Our expertise in local grant-giving, combined with Natural Cambridgeshire’s environmental leadership, means we can efficiently channel funding to where it will have the greatest impact for both nature and people.”

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority’s Mayor, Dr Nik Johnson said: “It’s inspiring to see the Fund for Nature supporting local biodiversity projects across the region, helping them take root and grow. This is exactly the kind of grassroots action needed to achieve our vision of doubling natural green-spaces and areas of rich wildlife.”

If you wish to find out about how to do more for nature where you live, or if you wish to make a donation to the Fund for Nature to support community-led nature recovery projects, please email fund@naturalcambridgeshire.org.uk.

Photo: Wisbech Street Pride volunteers were awarded a grant to create a bee and butterfly garden which will enhance habitats for nature in urban Wisbech.



Small grants scheme for community nature projects now open!

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fund for Nature has been established by a generous grant from Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority and is being managed by Natural Cambridgeshire. Working in partnership with the Cambridgeshire Community Foundation, a small capital grants scheme offering up to £5,000 per grant has been launched to enable communities across the county to improve nature where they live.

The Fund is inviting applications for nature projects that will do one or more of the following:

  • increase biodiversity and key wildlife habitats;
  • increase community cohesion by helping local people to understand, appreciate and enjoy their natural spaces more;
  • promote public health and wellbeing;
  • create resilient countryside and communities, where nature is at the heart of the approach to addressing climate change;
  • champion examples of best practice for sustainable development and management of green open space.

The deadline for the first round is 1st November 2023; the deadline for the second round will be 1st May 2024.

For further details on eligibility and how to apply for a grant please visit Cambridgeshire Community Foundation’s application portal which can be found here, or email info@cambscf.org.uk for further guidance.

If you would like to make a donation to augment the funds available to support community-led local nature recovery projects in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, including for a specific geographical area or for a particular habitat type or species, please email fund@naturalcambridgeshire.org.uk and we would be happy to discuss this further with you.

Photo: Teachers and pupils of Wheatfields School, St Ives, volunteers from St Ives in Bloom and St Ives EcoAction, and Huntingdonshire District Council’s Grounds Team working in partnership to sow wildflower mix on Wheatfields Recreation area near Wheatfields School, St Ives, Spring 2022. Credit: St Ives EcoAction

Community grants to support local nature-based projects

Our vision is that by doubling the area of rich wildlife habitats and natural green space, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough will become an outstanding environment where nature and people thrive, and businesses prosper.

Cambridgeshire currently has one of the smallest areas of land managed for nature in the country, relative to size. We want to double the amount of land in the county that’s managed for nature from 8% to 16%, which is the national average.

Why do we need to do this?

We need to:

  • give nature space and help to reverse declines in habitat and species
  • provide more areas for people to enjoy nature and to benefit our health and wellbeing
  • improve the quality of air that we breathe
  • help manage water for nature
  • create more resilience to climate change, and
  • boost the economy of our area.

How are we going to do it?

Plans of this scale involve a massive effort across a wide range of areas, we are therefore looking at a range of opportunities to double nature, including the following:

  • the delivery of large-scale habitat restoration schemes through six identified priority landscapes
  • ensuring that nature-friendly development is at the heart of the Combined Authority’s economic growth agenda
  • working with Local Authorities to use their powers to positively influence planning decisions
  • working with our farming community to help them understand and deliver climate change mitigation and creation of wildlife
  • transforming our current green spaces, to create homes for wildlife
  • providing information on gardening for nature and showing the importance of wildlife-friendly gardens
  • making sure there is enough water for wetland creation, and
  • creating new sources of investment to support our natural capital.

Find out more about the six priority landscapes here.

How can you get involved?

Everyone has a crucial role to play to enable this ambition to become a reality.  We need individuals, communities, and organisations to take action now to start making Cambridgeshire and Peterborough a better place for nature.

With the support of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Future Parks, applications are sought for local nature-based projects that enable greater community engagement with nature and public green space. That might simply be enhancing habitats for wildlife in school grounds, setting up a Friends group for a local park, or accessing training and advice to help you or your organisation to develop your project further.

Applicants are strongly advised to read Natural Cambridgeshire’s Local Nature Recovery Toolkit before applying and must demonstrate how their project will contribute towards the development of a Local Nature Recovery Plan for their community. The aims of a Local Nature Recovery Plan are to:

  • increase and enhance key wildlife habitats
  • help communities understand, appreciate and enjoy their natural spaces
  • promote public health and wellbeing
  • create resilient countryside and communities, where nature is at the heart of the approach to tackling the climate emergency, and
  • champion examples of best practice for sustainable development and management of parks and green open space.

This grant scheme has been enabled by Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Future Parks (CPFP), a collaboration between Cambridgeshire’s seven local authorities, Natural Cambridgeshire, and the Nene Park Trust.

CPFP is supported through the Future Parks Accelerator, a national collaboration between the National Lottery Heritage Fund, National Trust and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Future Parks Accelerator Project

Our Vision is to secure a sustainable future where our green spaces can thrive, helping people lead happy, healthy lives for generations to come.

Delivering the health and wellbeing benefits of the natural environment

A successful event held at Hinchingbrooke County Park in March 2019 and organised by Natural Cambridgeshire, the Local Nature Partnership for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. The event showcased the latest research on the links between health and the environment and the work of prominent experts and practitioners.

This Cambridgeshire and Peterborough event will bring together innovative leaders from a variety of professions to explore how improving access to the natural environment can lead to better health outcomes.

Speakers and attendees were diverse, bringing together national experts in public health and environmental management as well as examples of successful community engagement programs. The conference included presentations, plenary panels, breakout sessions, and moderated discussions. View the agenda here.


Speaker profiles

Will Day – Chair of the conference

Will is a Fellow of the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). He is also Chair of the Sainsbury’s Foundation Advisory Board, a member of the Council of Ambassadors of WWF (UK), a Board member of SDGLead, a Danish impact investment consultancy, Chairman of On Purpose, an NGO developing leaders for Social Enterprise, and Sustainability Advisor to PwC UK.

Previously, Will was Chairman of the Sustainable Development Commission, the UK government’s independent advisory body. He was involved with the establishment and early years of Comic Relief, a major UK fundraising and grant-giving organisation, and was its first Grants Director for Africa. Has been Chairman of the BBC Children in Need Appeal, and Special Advisor to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) between 2004 and 2009. For twelve years he was a Trustee, and latterly Chairman, of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI). Until recently, he Co-Chaired the Kant Nature Partnership, and until May 2018 was Chairman of Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP).

Earlier in his career, he worked for Save the Children Fund and Oxfam in humanitarian relief programmes in East Africa, was Director of the micro-savings and credit organisation Opportunity, and CEO of CARE International UK for 8 years. He also worked as a producer and presenter for the BBC World Service and was an Independent Assessor for the public appointments process for the UK government’s Department or Culture, Media and Sport.

Dr Nicola Dempsey

Dr Nicola Dempsey is joint lead, with Dr Kevin Thwaites on work package 4 of the Improving Wellbeing through Urban Nature project. Dr Dempsey leads on action research and on the implications for governance, policy and landscape management and on stakeholder engagement.

Nicola is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Landscape, University of Sheffield and leads the Place-keeping research group, which examines sustainable approaches to long-term landscape management through post-occupancy evaluation. Nicola will lead on the action research component and on the implications for governance, policy and landscape management and on stakeholder engagement.

Professor Catharine Ward Thompson

Catharine Ward Thompson is Professor of Landscape Architecture and directs OPENspace – the research centre for inclusive access to outdoor environments – at the University of Edinburgh. Her work focuses on inclusive access to outdoor environments and links between landscape and health. It includes work with children, young people and older people; it covers environment-behaviour interactions, historic landscapes and contemporary needs, and salutogenic environments.

Catharine has led several multidisciplinary research collaborations investigating relationships between environment and health, including the GreenHealth project. She directed the I’DGO (Inclusive Design for Getting Outdoors) research consortium, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, focused on the benefits and barriers to getting outdoors for older people and their quality of life. This has been followed by another Research Councils UK funded project looking at Mobility, Mood and Place for older people – with an emphasis on positive experiences and restorative outdoor environments. This project used innovative techniques to explore neural activity evident in older participants while they moved between different types of environment; it also considered the influence of outdoor environments over the life course on wellbeing in older age and used co-creation and intergenerational workshops to develop design ideas for the future.

Catharine recently co-authored a report for WHO’s European Regional office on links between urban green spaces and health and has advised on the implementation of the Place Standard developed by NHS Health Scotland and Architecture & Design Scotland.

 


Sponsored by

SmithsonHill who seek to develop a commercial space in Cambridge dedicated to advancing the AgriTech and associated science and technology sectors.

 


Organisations presenting

Living Sport is a charity dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of the people of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough through participation in sport and physical activity.

 

PECT is a sustainability charity helping to protect and enhance the environment. PECT was originally set up as Peterborough Environment City Trust.

 

PCVS is a registered charity set up by local organisations in 1980 as an umbrella and network organisation to the voluntary sector in Peterborough.

Developing with Nature Toolkit

Natural Cambridgeshire Local Nature Partnership (LNP) wishes to enhance the natural environment of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and to see all developments contribute to our policy objective of achieving a net gain in biodiversity through new development.

Greater Cambridgeshire is one of the fastest growing areas within England, with plans for significant additional development and major infrastructure to provide tens of thousands of new homes and significant new employment opportunities over the coming decades. The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) promotes sustainable development, which requires moving from net losses in biodiversity to net gains and for development to enhance the natural environment, including natural capital or ecosystem services.

Our natural environment underpins our economy and our wellbeing by providing wide-ranging benefits such as clean water and air, food, timber, carbon capture, flood protection and recreation. However, the natural environment is increasingly constrained due to the ongoing impacts of climate change. Natural vegetation, ponds and lakes provide natural cooling in urban environments, trees can help reduce localised air pollution, and high quality greenspaces provide access to nature and have been shown to have multiple benefits for physical and mental health.

New developments which adhere to sound sustainability principles ensure the protection and enhancement of this natural capital by creating high quality multifunctional habitats that support common, threatened and, or declining species. The provision of on-site and wider landscape-scale high quality natural environments also enhances the new development and attracts additional investments. Conversely, new developments neglecting this approach, diminishes both the quantity and quality of the natural environment, its biodiversity and the essential benefits and services these provide.

We’ve developed a Toolkit to help developers and infrastructure providers to demonstrate their commitment to achieving a net biodiversity gain to the public, local authorities or shareholders. The Toolkit comprises a simple list of 10 Things to do for Nature. The Toolkit is primarily intended for major developments requiring an Environmental Impact Assessment (new settlements, major urban extensions, housing developments above 100 dwellings, commercial developments greater than 1 Ha or 1,000m² floor space, mixed use developments greater than 2 Ha, or major transport infrastructure projects). It should be used at the very outset of planning new developments, and ideally at the time of selecting sites to acquire for development.

An assessment template and example scoring matrix is available in our resources section.

Healthy communities

The Cambridgeshire to which we aspire will have healthy communities in healthy environments. We will pioneer initiatives to ensure that green space and access to nature help people to enjoy and appreciate the nature around them, leading to healthier and happier lives.

The Naturally Healthy Sub-Group held their first meeting on Tuesday 20 January at the offices of Natural England in Cambridge. This is a group of public health professionals, conservation organisations, local authorities, local charities, government organisations, physical activity professionals and university research professionals coming together to promote and develop a evidence base that clearly demonstrates the health and wellbeing benefits of being active in the natural environment.

A Biosphere for the future

What do Brighton and Lewes Downs, Galloway & south Ayrshire, the Isle of Man, north Devon, Wester Ross and the Dyfi valley have in common? They have all been granted designated Biosphere Reserve status by UNESCO – model regions for sustainable development and test sites for conservation approaches where communities collaborate to live in harmony with their environment.

Funding of £9,950 has been received from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to research what is necessary to bring Biosphere Reserve status to the Cambridgeshire Fens. Made possible by the money raised by National Lottery Players, the project will focus on discovering what is needed to achieve this international UNESCO accolade. The project will enable the Wildlife Trust, working with a broad range of organisations and interests from all sectors of Cambridgeshire life  – conservation groups, academics, businesses, farming sector, local and regional government – to identify what the Biosphere idea could mean for the Cambridgeshire Fens, and to create a dedicated ‘Route Map’ of how to achieve it.

Working on a landscape scale through its Living Landscapes gave the Wildlife Trust the idea for a potential Cambridgeshire Fens Biosphere. Kate Carver, the Wildlife Trust’s Great Fen Project Manager said: “In a changing world, imaginative and innovative solutions are needed to tackle major challenges such as how we can protect the natural environment for everyone to enjoy whilst satisfying the needs of growing populations for homes and jobs; the key is communities working together to achieve sustainable development. We are thrilled that support from players of the National Lottery will enable us to move closer to a possible application to UNESCO.”

Robyn Llewellyn, Head of HLF East of England said

On behalf of National Lottery Players we are delighted to be able to fund this project that will enable the Wildlife Trust to work with partners to assess the feasibility of applying for a Biosphere Reserve Destination for the important heritage which forms the Cambridgeshire Fens.