For Wildlife Connections this is a particularly poignant time for us to do this as we’ve just come to the end of the Heritage Lottery funded aspect of the project which has been running for two years. To celebrate the success of this project we hosted a celebration event at Upton Golf Course for everyone who has been involved and engaged. Three of our Wildlife Champions gave inspiring talks about the journey that they have been on and the progress that their community groups have made in creating safe spaces for wildlife. Our Conservation Partners also hosted information stands providing opportunity for networking to ensure our contacts are working together and finding out about new opportunities to continue to drive their enthusiasm.
Hannah Brookes, Community Engagement Manager summed up some of the great success of the project;
We’re really proud of what we’ve achieved through Wildlife Connections and none of it would have been possible without the passionate people that have got involved and been inspired to do their bit for UK wildlife. We’re really looking forward to the next phase of the project and making it bigger and better in the years to come.
Hannah and the Wildlife Champions sum up the project and the celebration event here –
Key successes of Wildlife Connections:
- Trained 100 Wildlife Champions giving them skills and knowledge to take action for UK wildlife
- Run 3 Networking events bringing together Conservation Partners and Community groups
- Engaged 14 schools in a repeat engagement project called Protect our Wildlife, reaching 1500 pupils
- Hosted 2 Wildlife Connections Festivals which were attended by over 5000 people
- Created a host of online resources and received over 1800 wildlife records through the online reporting form
- We’ve also delivered loads of UK wildlife based activities both in the zoo and out in the community. Overall the project has delivered direct engagement with almost 20,000 people.