Reconnecting nature with wildlife corridors across Suffolk

The opportunity

People need space and the freedom of movement to stay healthy, happy, and resilient.

Nature is no different.  

As our needs and uses for the land have evolved over time, pockets of truly wild and rugged natural spaces have become smaller, fragmented, and more isolated.

These little islands of green are significantly more vulnerable to ‘edge effects’ - the impact of people, infrastructure, pollution, and disturbance surrounding each patch.

These pressures push in against the boundaries, reducing the wildlife havens further, and limiting the ability of plants and animals to escape disease or extreme climate events.  

What nature and people need to thrive is connection – physically and figuratively. By creating physical wildlife corridors that reconnect these isolated patches, we allow the land to breath again, and provide the ecosystem services that we depend on to survive.

Buffering green spaces against threat and disturbance is better for our environment, our communities, and our businesses.  

The project

This project will connect the most wildlife-rich zones of the Suffolk & Essex Coast & Heaths National Landscape.

From the south of the Stour Estuary through to the Norfolk Broads National Park in the north, new hedgerows and trees will be planted to naturally join the two ends of the protected landscape once more. 

Key species that will benefit from these interventions include the hazel dormouse, stag beetle, and hedgehog – all of which desperately need our help to survive.

Restoring networks of ecologically diverse zones is critical in protecting people and nature in the face of an uncertain climate future.   

Is your business based in or close to the National Landscape? Chat to the team about planting near you.

Choose a scale to suit you 

This project can be scaled up (109km max) and down depending on your budget and desired outcomes.

Whether you simply want to sponsor a small section of the corridor, or fund an ambitious, landscape-scale safe passage for some of our most threatened native wildlife, we can help. 

Key outputs 

Your business can be part of the solution to halt and reverse the UK’s world-leading nature depletion record.  

By supporting this project, you’ll be: 

• Contributing to a protected landscape meeting its national targets for nature recovery, with the potential of creating hedgerow cover that stretches from the equivalent of Manchester to Sheffield.  
• Reconnecting 7 Nature Recovery Core Zones, safeguarding them for an uncertain climate future and protecting the ecosystem services they provide to all of us. 
• Directly benefitting 11 priority species from the National Landscape’s Nature Recovery Plan.  
• Contributing to the sequestration of ~56 tonnes of carbon every year (with 109km of hedgerows planted).  
• Funding an innovative blueprint that can be promoted as an exemplar across our network, inspiring more projects of a similar scale and ambition.  
  
  

Partner organisations 

• Suffolk Wildlife Trust 
• Essex Wildlife Trust 
• Woodland Trust 
• Environment Agency
• Farmer clusters and other landowners 

Interested in restoring natural connections across one of the UK's most precious landscapes?