Shropshire churchyard charity awarded £120,000 green recovery grant
A Shropshire charity which looks after churchyards and cemeteries has been given more than £120,000 to help increase wildlife.
Caring for God's Acre, based at Craven Arms, has been awarded £120,715 from the government's Green Recovery Challenge Fund.
The charity will use the money to fund its 'Opening the Ark' project, which aims to increase the wildlife in churchyards and cemeteries.
The charity will also work with communities to encourage the wildlife found within the ancient spaces to spread to wider areas – including school grounds, village greens, verges and community spaces.
Harriet Carty, national director with Caring for God’s Acre, said the charity was excited about getting to work on the project.
“We are delighted to have been awarded a grant to carry out this really important work," she said.
"Burial grounds are such a rich source of local biodiversity and we look forward to working with churches and communities in the Shropshire Hills AONB [Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty] to make these spaces even more rich in terms of nature and biodiversity.”
The Green Recovery Challenge Fund is paying out £80m to organisations, with the government intending to boost green jobs and nature recovery.
In total 90 nature projects across England have been awarded grants ranging from £68,100 to £1,950,000 to create and retain more than 1,000 green jobs.
Caring for God’s Acre said its project will last 18 months and is aimed at increasing biodiversity in and around 26 burial grounds within the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
A statement from the charity said: "Burial grounds contain our oldest trees, our rarest lichens and fungi, and precious wildflower meadows.
"They are true arks or refuges for wildlife. Opening the Ark will help manage these special places for wildlife whilst encouraging species to spread from churchyards and cemeteries to community spaces, school grounds, gardens, village greens, verges, footpath edges and field margins, providing more joined up habitats.
"Opening the Ark will train participants in biological surveying and recording as well as practical conservation skills and will work with volunteers of all ages but particularly vulnerable people who can feel increasingly isolated due to lack of services and facilities."
Environment minister Rebecca Pow said: “The diverse and ambitious projects being awarded funding today will help environmental organisations employ more people to work on tree-planting, nature restoration and crucially, help more of the public to access and enjoy the outdoors.
“Through our £80 million Fund, we are on track to support over 2,500 jobs, plant almost a million trees and increase nature recovery at a huge scale across the country, which will help us deliver against our 25 Year Environment Plan.”
Ros Kerslake, chief executive of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “From wetland restoration, to creating wildlife-rich habitat for bees, it is vital that we value, protect and rebuild our natural heritage. This new funding will not only allow projects to carry out direct conservation which is essential in protecting our biodiversity, but it will increase awareness of how and why we need to change our behaviours in order to protect our future.”
