Community Nature Guardians delivers a programme of capacity building activities with community groups to create and improve local greenspaces and bluespaces.

The team works with a local community for up to 12 weeks, tailoring the project timeline to local needs and delivering a programme of formal and informal activities.

We create a local volunteer ‘Green Team’ to deliver a schedule of conservation activities to improve local greenspaces and river corridors. Green Teams undertake a range of activities including; site maintenance, planting, clearance, strimming, laying of hedges and paths. Volunteers also receive Agored Cymru accredited training in horticulture and coaching support to ensure progression into further learning, employment, volunteering. Participation is flexible in duration, depending on the circumstances of each individual volunteer.

Having the Community Nature Guardians team on site on a regular basis has help us enormously in getting work done across the reserve and help in creating more biodiversity across the site.

Kyle, Woodland Manager, Sirhowy Hill Nature Reserve, Blaenau Gwent.

A Community Nature Guardians volunteer posing with a shovel and wheelbarrow in front of the pond he is helping to dig.

We also offer less formal community wide conservation volunteering opportunities and conservation skills workshops. Community members join activities on a flexible basis, supporting local conservation needs e.g. tree planting, litter picks, balsam bashing, habitat creation, citizen science, bushcraft. We also engage with local primary and secondary schools to involve children, young people and families in activities after school, at weekends, or during school holidays, raising awareness of environmental issues and developing practical conservation skills and knowledge.

I’ve really enjoyed volunteering and learning new skills. I am 75 and I’ve learnt how to use a drill to make bee poles which I never thought I would.

Volunteer, Beaufort Hill Woodland and Ponds, Blaenau Gwent

Contact us to find out more about the programme and how to take part.