Thanks to National Lottery players, the Action Asylum project has received £1.6m from the National Lottery’s Climate Action Fund, which supports communities across the UK to act on climate change and involve more people in positive environmental action.

Over the next three years, volunteers from Asylum Link Merseyside and local communities in North Wales will work together on the Action Asylum project to deliver on-the-ground conservation actions across North Wales, including tree planting, woodland management, hedgerow restoration and non-native invasive species control. The project also includes a Skills Exchange Programme, that will help volunteers gain conservation skills, while Wildlife Trust staff receive refugee awareness, inclusion and trauma-informed practice training, enabling them to work more effectively alongside people with refugee backgrounds.

The project was launched in the Attlee Suite at the House of Commons on 29th June, hosted by Lord Randall of Uxbridge, Chair of The Task Force Trust, which is the lead body for the Action Asylum initiative. We will be running four climate action days each year. Our first took place at Tŷ Mawr Country Park on 11th July, where volunteers from Liverpool worked alongside the North Wales Wildlife Trust and the Dee Trust to clear invasive Himalayan balsam from the banks of the River Dee.