Sustainable development fund projects

Here are a just a few of the hundreds of projects that National Parks have helped with grants from the Sustainable Development Fund.

Sustainable development means promoting sustainable living and businesses, helping children and young people better understand what National Parks' special qualities are, and helping conserve and enhance National Park habitats and wildlife. These case studies show some of the practical ways we help do this.

A date with nature in the New Forest

Fluffy Goshawk chick being fed in the nest

This project set-up cameras focused on Goshawk and Hobby nests. Visitors can now get a close-up view of these birds of prey as they nest, rear their chicks, hunt for food, and take flight for the first time. All without disturbing the birds, and with knowledgeable staff and volunteers on-hand to answer questions and give background information on the birds behaviour.

The camera viewing areas, which are a big tourist attraction at the New Forest reptile centre, also have information about threatened ground-nesting birds, and the things that visitors can do to help during the breeding season.

The project also created an education programme, used in local schools to help children learn about the birds and reptiles found in the New Forest National Park.

New Forest - A date with nature

Solar energy in the Lake District

Solar panels on a village hall in Lowick in the Lake District

The Lake District National Park Authority gave £13,000 to help pay for solar panels on the roof of Lowick Community Hall. The 3.5 kilowatts of power that the photovoltaic roof produces, provides all the electricity requirements for the well used hall. It also powers an air source heat pump, which converts the energy of the air outside to provide heating inside.

National Parks have to balance the needs of planning guidelines to conservere the character of buildings intact, with the need for sustainable and environmentally frinendly building features, like renewable energy.

Local game food in Northumberland

Silver Sheldon promoting Hadrian's Game Larder

Northumebrland produces fantastic game produce. Pigeon, pheasant, partridge, grouse, woodcock, duck, snipe, and teal along with rabbit, hare, and deer, are all sustainable sources of food. And conserving land for game species means landowners conserve habitats for lots of other species too.

Hadrian's Game Larder was given £8,696 by Northumberland National Park Authortiy, so they could process and sell game produce in Northumberland, rather than most of it being sent away to Yorkshire. Selling food locally to restuarants, bars, butchers and caterers, reduces food miles and means people can support the local countryside.

Studying brown trout in the Yorkshire Dales

Brown trout numbers in the river Ure seem to have decreased over the past few decades, but no one really knows why. The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority and the Environment Agency, have supported a project to research what land use changes could be causing problems for the brown trout. Knowing what causes the problem is the first step in working with landowers to improve conditions for the fish.

The project stuns, catches and then measures fish throughout the tributaries of the river, before safely returning them to the water. It also looks at water quality, the land use around the river and changes to the water flow. The project is being run by Durham University and the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust over three years.

Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust

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