The National Lottery Heritage Fund has announced that it is giving £20 million ($27 million) in new funding to six major projects across the UK.
The goal of this funding is to help local communities connect with nature, protect the environment, and improve people’s well-being.
The largest single award, worth £9 million, will go to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. The money will be used to restore its famous and historic glasshouse, which is a Grade II listed building.
The project is expected to involve more than 22,000 people through special events and workshops as the gardens get ready to celebrate their 200th anniversary.
In Scotland, the Scottish Wildlife Trust will receive £2.6 million for a project in North Lanarkshire. This five-year plan will manage local woodlands, plant over 2,000 trees, and improve wildflower meadows to benefit more than 6,000 people in the community.
Other major projects receiving funding include The Food Museum in Suffolk, which gets £3.9 million to restore three historic buildings, and the Welsh Wildlife Centre in Pembrokeshire, which receives £2.2 million to improve accessibility for visitors and become more energy efficient.
Additional funding will also go to Woodoaks Farm in Hertfordshire to restore a 16th-century barn and to the North Pennines to help local farmers use more nature-friendly practices.
These grants will help protect the UK’s natural and historical treasures while creating new opportunities for people to get involved.
Eilish McGuinness, CEO of The UK National Lottery Heritage Fund, commented:
Each of these inspiring projects demonstrates a commitment to supporting greater inclusion, diversity and access to nature, and each is working to promote the wellbeing benefits of vital green places to reinvigorate and nurture a resilient future for people and our natural environment.
This new funding announcement comes shortly after the Heritage Fund celebrated a major achievement in Scotland.
Over the past 30 years, the organization has invested a total of £1 billion to help protect and share Scotland’s history and natural environment. This huge, long-term investment has supported around 5,000 different local projects across the country.
Some of the major initiatives that have received funding include important conservation work at the Mar Lodge Estate and support for the popular Robert Burns Birthplace Museum. This shows the fund’s deep and ongoing commitment to preserving Scotland’s most valued cultural and natural sites.
