Nature Communities fund
Afield is tackling problems that are rooted in the structural inequalities underlying environmental injustice.
Afield’s first Nature Communities call for applications will launch on 14th October - save the date!
These problems result from failures of government, private development, land ownership, and urban planning to provide healthy inner-city ecosystems. Consequently, local communities and the wider urban ecology experience:
- A lack of biodiversity
- Habitat scarcity for all species
- Poor human (physical and mental) health and wellbeing arising from a lack of access to rich local ecosystems and poor air quality
- Climate change vulnerability such as higher risk of overheating and flooding
They are problems that disproportionately affect poor communities. Environmental degradation reinforces social inequality and ecological decline. Therefore the areas of the highest need in cities are often those with the lowest capacity to solve the problems. Residents have less free time, greater financial burden, and there are fewer voluntary organisations.
Our framework for change is therefore one of:
- Mutual partnerships: working together to benefit humans and other species
- Mutual spaces: living together as part of an ecosystem, supported by governance such as long-term agreements or land ownership
- Mutual investment: giving back as much as we take from ecosystems
Afield's approach is to support a small number of individuals with a visionary idea to create foundational, long-term, community-led wilding projects that benefit both humans and other species. We will support grantees to realise their ideas by funding up to three years of the London Living Wage, and providing a cohort programme of mentorship, peer support, technical skills, networking, and learning.
Having mapped access and need for urban green space across London, we'll initially be inviting applications from individuals looking to develop projects in Waltham Forest, Newham, Barking, Croydon, Brent, Ealing, Lambeth, Lewisham, Hackney and Islington.