Cardiff, United Kingdom
City population: 344626
Duration: 2017 – ongoing
Implementation status: Ongoing
Scale: Meso-scale: Regional, metropolitan and urban level
Project area: unknown
Type of area: Public Greenspace Area, Other
Last updated: October 2021

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) Cymru’s Giving Nature a Home in Cardiff aims to engage thousands of children, their families, and local communities with Cardiff’s wildlife, enabling them to take action for nature (ref 9). To do this, the project provides free outreach sessions in nurseries, early-years settings/schools, and primary schools across Cardiff to help children discover the wildlife in their school grounds. To reach families, nature-based activities are held. Finally, the project supports communities to help improve and manage pollinator-friendly Urban Buzz sites across the city (ref 9).

Overview

Nature-based solution

  • Grey infrastructure featuring greens
  • House gardens
  • Parks and urban forests
  • Large urban parks or forests
  • Pocket parks/neighbourhood green spaces

Key challenges

  • Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)
  • Green space creation and/or management
  • Social justice, cohesion and equity (SDG 10)
  • Environmental education
  • Health and well-being (SDG 3)
  • Enabling opportunities for physical activity
  • Creation of opportunities for recreation

Focus

Protection of natural ecosystems, Knowledge creation and awareness raising

Project objectives

1. Protect nature and wildlife in Cardiff (ref 4) 2. Inspire young people to visit parks and open spaces. (ref 4) 3. 'Green-up’ schools in Cardiff and build homes for wildlife (ref 2) 4. Engage families in nature-based activities around Cardiff (ref 9) 4. Support bee population and increase pollination throughout Cardiff (ref 9)

Implementation activities

1. the project attracted 77,000 people (to Bute Park) since 2014. (ref 4) 2. Volunteers visited 60% of Cardiff’s primary schools – helping 13,900 pupils map and score their school grounds for nature by identifying habitats and finding ways to create more. (ref 4) 3. provision of free outreach sessions in nurseries, early years settings and primary schools across Cardiff to help children discover the wildlife in their school grounds. 4. To reach families, nature-based activities are held. 5. Project supports communities to help improve and manage pollinator-friendly Urban Buzz sites across the city (ref 9)

Main beneficiaries

  • Local government/Municipality
  • Public sector institution (e.g. school or hospital)
  • Non-government organisation/Civil Society
  • Citizens or community groups
  • Young people and children
  • Other

Governance

Management set-up

  • Co-governance with government and non-government actors

Type of initiating organisation

  • Non-government organisation/civil society

Participatory approaches/ community involvement

  • Joint implementation (e.g. tree planting)

Details on the roles of the organisations involved in the project

The project "Giving Nature a Home Cardiff " is run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds; was set up in partnership with Cardiff Council (ref 4); Cardiff’s primary schools are sites for identifying habitats (ref 4); and all of it is delivered in partnership with Cardiff Council and Buglife Cymru’s Cardiff Urban Buzz project, which is a collaboration between the City of Cardiff and Buglife, a non-profit organization (ref 5). Additionally, TESCO has supported the project as a corporate sponsor for the city-wide initiative (ref 5)

Project implemented in response to ...

... an EU policy or strategy? Unknown
... a national policy or strategy? Unknown
... a local policy or strategy? Unknown

Financing

Total cost

€500,000 - €2,000,000

Source(s) of funding

  • Other

Type of funding

  • Direct funding (grants, subsidies, or self-financed projects by private entities)
  • Donations

Non-financial contribution

Type of non-financial contribution
  • Provision of labour
  • Other
Who provided the non-financial contribution?
  • Citizens (e.g. volunteering)
  • Other

Impacts and Monitoring

Environmental impacts

  • Green space and habitat
  • Increased conservation or restoration of ecosystems
  • Increased number of species present
  • Enhanced support of pollination
  • Increased ecological connectivity across regeneration sites and scales

Economic impacts

  • Unknown

Socio-cultural impacts

  • Health and wellbeing
  • Gain in activities for recreation and exercise
  • Cultural heritage and sense of place
  • Increased sense of place identity, memory and belonging
  • Increased awareness of flora and fauna as culturally and historically meaningful
  • Increased appreciation for natural spaces
  • Education
  • Increased support for education and scientific research
  • Increased knowledge of locals about local nature
  • Other

Type of reported impacts

Achieved impacts

Presence of formal monitoring system

Unknown

Presence of indicators used in reporting

No evidence in public records

Presence of monitoring/ evaluation reports

No evidence in public records

Availability of a web-based monitoring tool

No evidence in public records

References

1. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. (2015). Re-wild your wellies and give nature a home in Cardiff. [Available at: Source link. [Accessed on: Jul 6 2020].
2. Robertson C. (2016). Guest Blog. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. [Accessed: Source link. [Accessed on: Jul 6 2020].
3. Mitchell S. (2017). Give nature a home in school - Free outreach sessions for Cardiff primary schools. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. [Avialable at: Source link. [Accessed on Jul 6 2020].
4. Howard B. (2017). Half a million pound grant helps Cardiff get back to nature. The Cardiffian. [Available at:
Source link. [Accessed on: Jul 6 2020].
5. Buglife. (2017) Half a million pounds for nature in Cardiff. [Webpage not available in 2020].
6. Giving Nature a Home in Cardiff. Background for support. Shared on: 26/08/2018. (PDF attached).
7. RSPB (2017). Living Levels Learning Resource. [Available at: Source link. [Accessed on: Jul 5 2020]
8. Cardiff Caerdydd. (2019). Cardiff Biodiversity and Resilience of Ecosystems Duty Forward Plan: City of Cardiff Council Green Infrastructure Plan. Cardiff: City of Cardiff. [Available at: Source link. [Accessed on: Jul 8 2020]