Nature Together: involving communities in caring for local green spaces

In this blog Kit Beaumont, Project Manager at Bristol City Council, gives an overview of the Nature Together project and outlines plans to make it easier for communities to look after local green spaces and take action for nature.

Bristol’s Nature Together project kicked off on 19 January, and it was a real privilege to launch it alongside so many enthusiastic project partners. The energy in the room was inspiring. People came ready to collaborate, share ideas, and get stuck into some tricky topics — all of which gives the project a strong start as we move into our first year.

What Nature Together is all about

Funded through the UK‑wide Nature Towns and Cities Programme, with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Nature Together is a two‑year project (January 2026–December 2027) that aims to make it easier for communities in Bristol to take action for nature where it is needed the most.

Currently, we know that it’s not always easy to get permission to do things like plant wildflowers or bulbs in council-owned spaces. The process isn’t very intuitive and it can be hard to find information about what’s allowed or how to start. We want to use Nature Together as an opportunity to address some of these issues. We might not fix all of them but if we are going to see the increase in biodiverse green spaces that we need in our city, making it easier for people to get involved needs to be part of our approach.

The project is also looking at how we assess the quality of our parks and how we help to fund and upskill communities to continue taking action for nature now and into the future.

Nature Together supports communities to:

• Design and deliver their own nature projects in local parks, streets and green spaces
• Access tools, resources and funding
• Create neighbourhood plans for nature
• Learn new skills and volunteer

At the heart of it all is a simple aim: helping people get involved in caring for the green spaces they value.

Creating better ways to support community action

A big part of the project is developing clearer, simpler systems for groups who want to green their neighbourhoods. This includes:

• A Greening Permit Scheme – making it quicker and easier for communities to deliver small‑scale projects
• “One Front Door” – a single, accessible way to request support, permissions or advice
• A new parks quality assessment tool that enables communities to help define and assess quality locally
• New guidance, templates and shared resources to help people start and grow nature projects
• Funding – exploring new ways to fund community nature projects, including emerging regional platforms and green finance opportunities.

We’ll be co‑designing and testing these tools with community partners before sharing them citywide. We’re also developing a range of project resources to help others take action and make sure that people across the region can benefit.

Who’s involved

Nature Together is a partnership project developed and run by Bristol City Council, Avon Wildlife Trust, Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership, Natural History Consortium and Your Park Bristol & Bath.

We’re working closely with three fantastic community partners; Bristol Older People’s Forum, Eastside Community Trust and Lockleaze Neighbourhood Trust. Each organisation is funded to lead local engagement, develop plans for nature and test new approaches to community‑led action.

We’re also collaborating with Natural England, the National Trust, and the West of England Combined Authority.

The project is only possible thanks to the many staff across these organisations who bring their expertise, enthusiasm and support.

What’s happening now?

Since the launch, the core team has been visiting communities to understand their ambitions, researching greening permit schemes from around the world and mapping how permissions currently work within the Council.

We are delivering this project in genuine partnership between the council and the other organisations, including our community partners, who have all recruited new staff for the project. It’s been exciting meeting new people and establishing ways of working that will guide the project together with our community partners. We’re finding out more about their ambitions and how we can support them to take forward their ideas in a way that will help shape the new council systems.

We have also spent time trying to understand how things currently work, starting with what is working well so we can build upon ‘what’s strong’, not ‘what’s wrong’. Fortunately, we aren’t starting from a blank page: colleagues in Community Development are already working with council officers and community groups which mean we have a great place to start from.

We have also been keen to learn from other cities. A lot of people will have heard about Paris but there are similar schemes in Melbourne, Seattle, Vienna and a bit closer to home the Right to Grow scheme in Hull. There are some great insights we can take from this work to inform our approach here in Bristol. This grounding work will help us build systems that genuinely work for both communities and council teams.

This work complements our Managing for Nature programme funded by the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority’s Green Recovery Fund, matched to capital funding provided by the Council. This programme is improving the ecological condition of existing natural green spaces through better management, creating new habitats that improve connectivity for wildlife and implementing ‘wildlife-friendly’ practices across a wider area.

How to get involved

Right now, the project’s focus is on supporting our three funded community partners. If you live in Lockleaze, Easton or Lawrence Hill — or if you’re over 55, then keep an eye out for opportunities to get involved in shaping your local plan for nature or get in touch directly with one of our community partners: Bristol Older People’s Forum, Eastside Community Trust or Lockleaze Neighbourhood Trust.

 

To stay in touch with the project, including ways to take part, sign up as a member of the Partnership or keep an eye on the various project partners social media channels.

Find out more about Nature Together