A very scalable grassroots community project to inspire and empower local people to protect, restore, and enhance wildlife and habitat in their local area.

ACTion on Climate in Teignbridge’s purpose is finding ways of engaging communities with their own wildlife so they understand its importance, find out how to look after it and enjoy it more.

They have set up a Parish-based Wildlife Warden Scheme to help their wildlife in their patch. They started planning before Covid and have since realised the additional benefit of helping communities feel happier, more involved and needed – benefiting people’s mental health too.

The project is a long-term project they would like to see replicated over the whole of Devon and beyond. It requires funding for a part-time Coordinator to organise training, keep Parish/Town/Ward records, and deal with day-to-day requests for information and advice to help neighbouring areas.

In the first year they aim to have at least 40 trained Wildlife Wardens in 20 Parishes each carrying out 15 practical projects (such as pond management, tree-planting, hedge-planting, meadow management), making contact with at least 10 farmers/landowners, holding at least 8 on-site training days and 10 x 2-hour Zoom training sessions.