Perth & Kinross Council have launched a new Nature Restoration Fund, which aims to support community groups increase local biodiversity.

The fund aims to target the biodiversity crisis by addressing some of its causes - habitat loss and fragmentation, and invasive species.

Last year, Perth & Kinross Councils Community Greenspace team involved In Bloom and other community groups to help deliver a tree corridor on the South Inch and a thousand trees at Perth Crematorium, enhancing the biodiversity value of these important greenspaces.

Restoration of the South Inch SUDS pond was also carried out along with pollinator friendly planting of heathers, wildflowers or snowdrops in Kinross, Pitlochry, Perth, and Glenfarg. Community groups also carried out planting across Perth and Kinross. Kinross-shire Civic Trust groups raingarden project was award winning, coming first place in the Community category at the 2022 national Susdrain Awards

Last year, the Biodiversity Blairgowrie and Rattray Group used funding from the scheme to establish themselves as a Biodiversity Town and Village (respectively) under Tayside Biodiversity Partnership's Biodiversity Villages scheme.

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Other projects included supporting pollinators with wildflower planting, introducing native trees and pollinator friendly gardening in schools, providing homes for wildlife, reinvigorating SUDS ponds for amphibians, implementing innovative surface water measures, giving Biodiversity Towns and Villages a head start, lots of pollinator friendly planting across greenspaces and green graveyards, and plenty of new homes for birds, bats and hedgehogs across towns and schools.

Perth & Kinross Council has been awarded £176000 for 2022-2023. The purpose of the fund remains "nature restoration and improving biodiversity on land and in the seas" but with a greater rural focus to address the drivers of biodiversity loss.

Following approval by the Climate Change and Sustainability Committee, Perth & Kinross Council and Tayside Biodiversity Partnership will use £106,000 of the funding to take forward projects in conjunction with local communities. The remaining £70,000 made available for community groups to realise nature restoration projects where they live.

From the end of August applications can be made for capital funding for projects of between £1250 and £12500. Applications must be submitted by 30 September.

Councillor Richard Watters, convenor of Perth & Kinross Council's Climate Change and Sustainability Committee, said: "These nature restoration projects are key to building healthy ecosystems, to help protect and reverse the decline of our biodiversity throughout Perth and Kinross, creating a natural environment that can be enjoyed by all.

"Community groups are best placed to know what is needed in their areas and I would urge people to submit their applications now.

"These projects may be small, but they can make a big different to the environments we live in and the wildlife we share it with."