Belfast is set to receive a significant investment of £850,514 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to launch a major environmental project aimed at reconnecting residents with the natural world.

The initiative, titled 'Breaking Through Barriers to Connect People and Nature', is a collaborative effort between Belfast City Council and Ulster Wildlife. It stands as one of only 19 projects across the UK selected for the Nature Towns and Cities programme, having emerged successfully from a highly competitive pool of 276 applications.

The UK-wide Nature Towns and Cities programme carries a 10-year ambition to provide five million more people with access to green and blue spaces, while enabling one million children to engage with nature close to their homes. In Belfast, the funding will be used to create a strategic vision for nature recovery, focusing on practical urban interventions such as:

• Greening local streets and alleyways.

• The creation of new "pocket parks".

• Extensive planting of wildflowers and trees.

• Enhancing existing parks and public open spaces.

Deputy Lord Mayor of Belfast, Councillor Paul Doherty, welcomed the news, stating: "This investment will help us build on the work already underway across the city to make Belfast greener, healthier and more resilient. "We know that access to nature is not equal across our communities. Through this project we want to work with residents to identify opportunities in their neighbourhoods, whether that's greening streets and alleyways, creating small pocket parks, planting more trees and wildflowers, or improving local open spaces."

The project will include mapping exercises to provide better data for future investment and will build upon existing initiatives like the 'Bolder Vision for Belfast', which seeks to replace urban "grey" with vibrant green spaces.

Dr Paul Mullan, Northern Ireland Director at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, commented: "We are so pleased to see Belfast joining Nature Towns and Cities as part of a coalition with the ambition for everyone to experience nature in their daily lives. We hope that communities currently lacking access to urban green space will engage with the project's activities and events over the next three years."

To ensure community involvement, a dedicated Engagement Officer will be appointed to work alongside residents and local groups. This role will focus on identifying barriers to nature access and providing the necessary training and support to empower local people to lead changes in their own areas.

Dawn Miskelly, CEO of Ulster Wildlife, added: "Working with stakeholders and communities will be at the core of making all this a success. We want to amplify the brilliant work already happening across Belfast's communities. At Ulster Wildlife, we know that lasting nature recovery only happens when people feel empowered and involved, when their voices matter and their ideas shape the future."

The project aims to create a repeatable blueprint for urban nature recovery that could be applied across Northern Ireland, linking the city centre to the surrounding Belfast Hills and Lagan Valley.