'Climate CHANGE Cymru’ builds on the success of our existing environmental youth engagement work under the ‘Our Wild Coast’ banner, and will allow us to significantly develop this during the coming four years. Indeed, it was our own youth-led environmental forum on Anglesey, ‘Môn Gwyrdd’, who developed the proposal with us and will now provide the template upon which new youth forums will be established in areas of Powys, Ceredigion and south-east Wales.  For the first time in our history, all the Wildlife Trusts in Wales will be working together to deliver wildlife-focussed community engagement – it’s really exciting to work at such a scale!

As a partnership, we’ll be working with Wales’s young people to identify and develop their concerns about climate change and empower them to take action to simultaneously reduce the carbon footprint of their communities and benefit local wildlife. Activities will include hedgerow-planting; creating green roofs, green walls and rain gardens; erecting bird and bat boxes; establishing ponds and community orchards; and re-connecting/re-wilding greenspaces. There will also be scope for formal training and accreditation, and an annual national youth summit to bring young environmentalists from across the country together to share their ideas and celebrate successes.

We are hugely grateful to the National Lottery’s Climate Action Fund for giving us this amazing opportunity, and to National Lottery players for making it possible. We feel very reassured that, in these uncertain times, they and others are still willing to prioritise funding for pioneering projects which benefit both people and wildlife.

For more information on this exciting new project please contact Chris Baker (People & Wildlife Manager) on chris.baker@northwaleswildlifetrust.org.uk, and keep an eye on our website and social media channels for more news on the Climate CHANGE Cymru project in the coming months!