Conservation project’s £400,000 cash boost

A leading North-East wildlife charity aims to create jobs after being awarded more than £400,000 by the Government to deliver a “landmark” conservation programme.

Durham Wildlife Trust’s “Healing Nature” initiative – protecting and restoring important habitats across 20 wildlife sites – is one of the first environmental projects to be awarded a grant from the Government’s £80m Green Recovery Challenge Fund.

The Trust, based at Rainto n M ead ows , H oug hto n , has been awarded £407,300 to carry out vital at the sites in Sunderland, South Tyneside and Gateshead.

Local authorities in the three areas are also contributing £69,500 between them for capital works at the sites.

Mark Dinning, the Trust’s Head of Conservation, said: “Durham Wildlife Trust is delighted to be awarded this landmark funding. The challenges posed to the health of our natural world have never been better recognised, and Healing Nature will put nature’s recovery at the heart of these local communities.

“We would like to thank o u r l o c a l aut h o r i ty p a r tners for recognising and inve s t i n g i n th i s s i g n i f i c a nt opportunity to restore nature.”

The Government funding will lead to the Trust forming a Healing Nature project team, tasked with protecting and ecologically restoring important habitats, including grasslands, wetlands, and woodlands.

The team will include three new full-time posts, three part-time posts and fou r tra i n e e s , re c r u i te d through the Kickstart prog ra m m e. T h ey w i l l wo rk alongside volunteers to save the sites.