Bees and butterflies to benefit from national park’s funding
Projects will create 80 football pictches’ worth of bee habitat
New wildflower havens for bees and butterflies will be created after a new tranche of funding was announced.
Grants of up to £5,000 will be available to help create new rows of wildflowers across Sussex and Hampshire.
The South Downs National Park Trust, the official independent charity for the national park, is now looking to hear from farmers, private landowners, parish councils, local authorities and schools with land that may be available for planting.
Expressions of interest are being invited for this second round of funding for Bee Lines – an initiative launched in 2019 to create a new network of wildflower corridors to help support bees and other pollinators.
New planting will effectively create a road system for pollinating insects, allowing them to move through the landscape more easily.
Two years ago the community rallied round to raise £75,000 to smash the fundraising target and the first round of grants were awarded last year.
Eight new wildflower havens will be created, including these locations in West Sussex: Northchapel, near Petworth; St Columba’s Pollinator Project, near Chanctonbury; Sompting Wildflower Project; Lancing College; and Truleigh Hill, near Brighton.
Collectively, the eight projects will create about 50 hectares of new habitat for bees – equivalent to more than 80 football pitches.
Nick Heasman, countryside and policy manager for the South Downs National Park, who is leading the project, said: “Bees are incredible ‘ecosystem engineers’, quietly working away year after year to pollinate a third of food crops and 90 per cent of wild plants.
“But these pollinators have been in trouble for many years and Bee Lines is our way of fighting back, helping populations to recover and become more resilient to human impact and climate change.
“We’re really excited to be launching this second round of funding applications and are looking forward to seeing the existing projects take shape.
“We obviously have a limited pot of funding, so will only be able to take forward a selected number of projects in this second phase.”
Grants of up to £5,000 will be available, subject to match funding from the applicant and a commitment to help maintain the wildflowers in future years.
Applicants could also use the funding for improving existing land to benefit pollinators, for instance, through cultivation and seed mixes.
Expressions of interest should be submitted by midnight on 14 March.
Toapplyandformoredetails, visit www.southdownstrust. org.uk/beelines
“This is wonderful opportunity to be part of nature recovery and helping conserve our precious environment for future generations,” said MrHeasman.