The Urban Wildlife Network exists to promote and defend nature in cities. Its aims are to protect urban green space, encourage biodiversity, make cities more liveable, increase our knowledge of urban ecosystems and ensure that urban areas, where most of us in the UK live, provide plenty of opportunities for people to connect with the natural world. It believes that a close relationship between people and nature is essential for human physical and psychological health and for their understanding of the wider global environment.
The UWN has a history that stretches back to the 1970s. It was formerly the Urban Wildlife Partnership, an umbrella body representing the urban wildlife trusts, but was “refounded” as the UWN in 2005 as an independent network linking experts, activists and practitioners in the urban environment. It marked its relaunch in February 2005 with a major conference in Manchester entitled Greener Cities - Closing the gap between policy and practice, held in conjunction with CABE Space, Groundwork, English Nature and The Wildlife Trusts. A report of this conference can be downloaded from this site.
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Final Conference Report |
The UWN’s aim is to provide a genuinely independent voice in urban nature conservation and the urban environment. Between 80 and 90 per cent of us live in urban areas in the UK and since the 1970s there has been an active and widespread grassroots campaign for greener cities. Many of the concerns and aspirations expressed by urban environmentalists over that period have recently been taken on board in the Government’s urban policies. Nevertheless major problems remain: no one who wants to see green cities can afford to relax.
To read more about our aims, see the Manifesto for Green Cities,
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Green Cities - And Why We Need Them |
Originally published as part of the New Economics Foundation ( http://www.neweconomics.org) pocketbook Green Cities and Why We Need Them, by David Nicholson-Lord. You can become a supporter of the UWN, and join its email network, by filling in the form on the site.
The UWN is a charity run by an executive. Its president is Prof. Chris Baines, its current Acting Chair is Peter Shirley and its secretary is Michelle Tyrtania. It has received support from English Nature to set up this website. For more details see the About Us section. If you would like to contribute to our work, please contact us.
This site has been developed with support from English Nature ( http://www.english-nature.org.uk).