Wales Wild Spaces

Butterfly Conservation is excited to announce that it is exploring opportunities for a new Wild Spaces project in South Wales.  

Sammy Fraser, Butterfly Conservation’s Wild Spaces Officer, has been connecting with existing organisations in South Wales to form partnerships and look for ways for a new project to add value. The project will learn from the successes of Butterfly Conservation’s existing Wild Spaces projects and its Big City Butterflies project.  

Butterfly Conservation is seeking external funding (NLHF) for a three-year Wild Spaces project for South Wales with a dedicated project officer. If it is successful, this will include a one-year development stage. The project is focusing on a ‘hub and satellite’ approach with Newport as the hub for the project area. The ‘satellite’ sites will see the creation of a network of Wild Spaces within the landscape and will connect more people with butterflies and moths. 

A key mechanism for the ‘satellite’ sites will be the administration of the grant scheme for local communities to apply for. The criteria for the community grants will be developed during the project’s development stage. The range of specific funding needs of community groups will be developed with them further during the development stage. 

Sammy is currently undertaking community consultation work to gather evidence of support for a funding bid. The Wales Wild Spaces project will focus on the following key outcomes: 

Creating new Wild Spaces in freely accessible council parks and community sites in Newport and the surrounding areas 

Access to free funding for primary and secondary schools to create their own bespoke Wild Spaces across Newport and the surrounding areas 

Training on Wild Space creation 

Community grants for those living outside of Newport to access funding for the creation of new Wild Spaces, their management and community work 

Training young people and community groups in rural skills, citizen science and Wild Space management 

• Free seasonal community events 

We’d love to hear from anyone living in Newport and the surrounding areas about where they’d like to see new Wild Spaces created, how their community group or school would like to be involved and any ideas or feedback you may have. 

Please complete our survey here https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/BJ5YTY/ or contact Sammy at wildspaces@butterfly-conservation.org