To promote the value of the environment and help drive change to more sustainable lifestyles though a creative engagement with the natural world...
Valuing Nature was a strand of our environment programme, which aimed to promote the value of the environment and help to drive change to more sustainable lifestyles, through a creative engagement with the natural world.
Some of the initiatives of Valuing Nature were designed to impact on business and government planning; others to engage disadvantaged local communities in an understanding of the natural world; and others to harness the power of art to highlight environmental issues. You can read a report into this programme here.
In the past, we have supported the development of new tools and evidence to demonstrate the social and economic benefits of investment in the natural world and have influenced the policies and approach of government and business decision makers.
Valuing nature in mainstream policy and decision making: New Economics Foundation, Finance Innovation Lab, RSPB etc.
The garden/growing the social role of botanic gardens: Botanic Gardens Conservation International and Geffrye Museum
Arts and Environment: Galapagos Artists’ Residence project
We then supported the following projects under this closed programme:
Botanic Gardens Conservation International: £18,000 to support BGCI’s strategic development and implementation of a new five-year plan, embedding its commitment to developing the social and environmental roles of botanic gardens.
The Conservation Volunteers: £35,000 funding towards the second year of a two-year study of the impact of environmental volunteering in six locations throughout the UK, testing the theory that it promotes social mixing, attracts social value, redresses environmental injustice and influences behaviour, in order to establish stronger evidence for decision makers and a method that can be used by the wider voluntary sector.
Plan Vivo Foundation: £30,000 funding towards the first year of a two-year project to create new tools and systems for PES (Payment for Ecosystem Services) ‘insetting’, i.e. enabling businesses in the UK to identify and invest in opportunities within their supply chains which would reduce ecosystem risks, and preserve and enhance the flow of ecosystem services.
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds: £47,000 to determine critical threshold levels for children’s connection to nature and a national baseline for teenagers.
