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Nature Towns and Cities (NTC) is a UK-wide programme that seeks to help put nature at the heart of local decision making for everyone’s benefit. Belfast is part of this initiative, backed by £850,514 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund (link opens in new window).
Our NTC project, Breaking Through Barriers to Connect People and Nature is being delivered in partnership with Ulster Wildlife until July 2028. Together, we want to work to make Belfast's urban spaces greener, improve community connections, and help the city adapt to climate change.
This is a collaborative project to figure out our current situation, our future goals, and how to reach them. It will not fund construction work like building new parks. Instead, it focuses on training, upskilling, and building partnerships.
The project has six main areas of work:
Supporting Community Action: Working with local people to build skills and capacity to get involved
Approaches to Urban Greening: Finding ways to bring more nature into the built environment
Nature and Climate support: Learn how our parks and open spaces can be managed to support wildlife and tackle climate challenges
Data led thinking: Assess the data we have available to make smart decisions.
Ongoing sustainability: Investigating funding opportunities and methods to sustain ongoing and future work
Getting ready for Biodiversity Net Gain: how could we implement this approach to planning
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:
Nature Towns and Cities (NTC) is a UK-wide programme that seeks to help put nature at the heart of local decision making for everyone’s benefit. Belfast is part of this initiative, backed by £850,514 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund (link opens in new window).
Our NTC project, Breaking Through Barriers to Connect People and Nature is being delivered in partnership with Ulster Wildlife until July 2028. Together, we want to work to make Belfast's urban spaces greener, improve community connections, and help the city adapt to climate change.
This is a collaborative project to figure out our current situation, our future goals, and how to reach them. It will not fund construction work like building new parks. Instead, it focuses on training, upskilling, and building partnerships.
The project has six main areas of work:
Supporting Community Action: Working with local people to build skills and capacity to get involved
Approaches to Urban Greening: Finding ways to bring more nature into the built environment
Nature and Climate support: Learn how our parks and open spaces can be managed to support wildlife and tackle climate challenges
Data led thinking: Assess the data we have available to make smart decisions.
Ongoing sustainability: Investigating funding opportunities and methods to sustain ongoing and future work
Getting ready for Biodiversity Net Gain: how could we implement this approach to planning
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:
We have been awarded funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund for the Nature Towns and Cities Belfast Project, which is being delivered in partnership with Ulster Wildlife. Our aim is to develop a shared, city-wide blueprint that supports informed decision-making and helps create a nature-rich, climate-resilient, thriving Belfast.
As we begin this ambitious programme, we are bringing together organisations, community leaders, partners and stakeholders from across the city to help shape the vision, priorities and partnerships that will guide this work.
Our first Greening the Grey Forum will explore how Belfast's built environment and grey spaces can be enhanced to support biodiversity, and how nature-based solutions can help address many of the environmental and social challenges facing the city.
Your experience, insights and connections across Belfast's communities and organisations will be invaluable to this conversation, and we would be delighted if you could join us.
Event Details
Tuesday 29 September 10:00am - 1:30pm Factory Room, The MAC, Belfast
The forum will provide an opportunity to:
Hear from organisations that are already enhancing nature and biodiversity across Belfast
Connect and collaborate with others working to create a greener, more resilient city
Share ideas, challenges and opportunities for increasing the use of nature-based solutions within the built environment
Help shape the future direction of the Nature Towns and Cities Belfast Project
Lunch will be provided. A full agenda and further event information will be shared with confirmed attendees closer to the event.
Please note: Due to venue capacity, attendance is limited. Places will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, and we will contact you to confirm your place as soon as possible.
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Following our recent stakeholder forum we know that there is already excellent work happening across Belfast from a wide range of organisations, groups and communities that is supporting Nature and Climate Resilience. We also heard that there was an appetite amongst some of our attendees to undertake work in this area, but needed some support in getting there.
Nature Towns and Cities is here to support communities and organisations to take action for nature and climate through training, upskilling and facilitating partnerships that can enable delivery.
This survey will help us identify what training and upskilling people would benefit from to start the work they want - or to make what they are doing already even better.
Please tick all of the training examples that would be of interest to you or your organisation.
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