Nature Towns and Cities Belfast

Nature Towns and Cities (NTC) is a UK-wide programme helping more people enjoy the benefits of nature and green space to everyone and is made possible close to home. Belfast is one of the towns and cities benefiting from this support thanks to £850,514 of funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Our NTC project, Breaking Through Barriers to Connect People and Nature is being delivered in partnership with Ulster Wildlife until July 2028. Together, we will work with communities and partners across the city to create a blueprint for how we can achieve our vision; A Belfast where urban spaces are key community assets, connecting people, enhancing nature and helping the city adapt to climate change.

This is a pathfinding project to gain a better understanding of where we are now, where we want to be and how we could get there.

The project has five main areas of work:

• Engage with communities and stakeholders to build capacity, empower people and co-design project outputs
• Explore ways we could “green the grey” in built-up areas
• Identify how we could manage parks and open spaces to better support biodiversity and climate resilience
• Use better data to guide decisions

• Strengthen long-term organisational sustainability by investigating investment opportunities to leave a lasting legacy

Whilst this project will not include the funding of new capital works such as new parks or green infrastructure, it will support stakeholders across Belfast by building capacity through upskilling, training and developing partnerships.

Get involved

This is about connecting people and nature. So we need your help!

We've created this page to make it easier for residents, community groups and organisations from across Belfast to get involved and have their say. From here you can:

• Share your ideas or take part in surveys
• Find out about upcoming events
• Join our mailing list