Weald to Waves is an ambitious landscape-scale 100-mile nature recovery corridor stretching from the High Weald to the Sussex coast. It is a farmer led initiative building a network of land managers, councils, researchers, green charities, schools, gardeners and community groups connecting fragmented landscapes to boost biodiversity, capture carbon, enhance food production, and enrich the rural economy.
Nature cannot survive in fragments. We need bigger, better, more and joined up habitats to allow species to survive and thrive, and provide vital ecosystem services from clean water to carbon capture and natural flood management.
Re-establishing these connections will help reverse biodiversity loss, improve resilience to climate change and support farm businesses.
With support from the Elgol Fund for Nature, Knepp Wildland Foundation and partners will:
- Reconnect habitats: Delivering evidence-led pond, hedgerow, and grassland corridor projects across gardens and farmland, reducing habitat fragmentation and increasing ecological connectivity throughout the corridor.
- Support nature-positive farming: Support our members to adopt regenerative agricultural practices that reduce diffuse pollution, sequester carbon, enhance biodiversity, and reduce environmental pressures, whilst demonstrating cost savings and increased revenues.
- Build a corridor of evidence: Establish a citizen science community to test and trial innovative methods of data collection, providing robust environmental data in co-ordinated collaboration with partners to enable consistent approaches to data collection and sharing.
Expected outcomes
In the first three years the project aims to:
- Restore or create 7.5 km of hedgerow, 100 ha of species-rich grassland and 20+ wetland complexes.
- Engage 500+ volunteers, establish 20+ community champions and build a network of citizen-scientists to monitor soil, water, habitats and species.
- Establish four demonstration farms and develop practical toolkits and guidance on mob-grazing and soil health.
Weald to Waves will leave a connected corridor of thriving habitats embedded in local communities. The tools, demonstration sites and evidence it generates will guide future delivery, influence regional policy and inspire similar landscape-scale recovery efforts across the UK.
All photos courtesy of the Knepp Wildland Foundation
