Nature Towns and Cities Programme
It's in Our Nature, It's in Our LCR
#LCRNatureTogether
Merseyside Environmental Advisory Service (MEAS) and Merseyside BioBank are proud to be working with longstanding partners including Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, The Mersey Forest and Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) on the Nature Towns and Cities Programme Liverpool City Region - "It's in Our Nature, It's in Our LCR".
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has been awarded £1 million to support delivery of the Local Nature Recovery Strategy, improve access to nature and help communities design and develop grassroots projects to restore the natural environment.
The grant from the Nature Towns and Cities Programme of the National Lottery Heritage Fund will help unlock long-term investment in nature across the city region aimed at scaling up a pipeline of impactful projects.
The Nature Towns and Cities Programme is intended to make nature part of everyday life. Over a three-year programme running to March 2029, delivery will be driven through four interconnected workstreams.
Liverpool City Region
The Nature Towns and Cities Programme operates across all six Liverpool City Region boroughs: Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral.
Through community-led action, partnership working and long-term investment, the programme will support nature recovery and improve access to high-quality green spaces for communities across the region.
Programme Workstreams
🌳 Workstream 1
It's in Our Nature
Prioritising community-led design, development and stewardship of nature spaces throughout the Liverpool City Region.
Lead: The Mersey Forest🍃 Workstream 2
Partnerships
Bigger, Better, More Joined Up. Establishing strong multi-sector collaborations across business, infrastructure, policy, education, health and community sectors.
Lead: The Mersey Forest🌱 Workstream 3
Capacity Building
Strengthening capacity of stakeholders to effectively engage with and steward nature-based solutions.
Lead: LJMU🌿 Workstream 4
Investment & Pipeline Development
Unlocking long-term, multi-source investment in nature through a clear place-based investment framework.
Lead: MEASTransformation Agenda
Our Role
Merseyside Environmental Advisory Service (MEAS) and Merseyside BioBank are leading Workstream 4 and have an important supporting role within Workstreams 1 and 3, working closely with communities and other audiences to develop a Wildlife Engagement Toolkit.
More broadly, we are working alongside project partners across all workstreams to help implement activities across the Nature Towns and Cities Programme.
What We Plan To Do
🦋 Wildlife Engagement Toolkit
Developing resources, training materials and engagement activities that encourage communities to connect with wildlife and nature recovery.
📍 High Integrity Accessible Project Pipeline
Developing a pipeline of nature-based projects supported through opportunity mapping, readiness assessments and investment planning.
Year 1 Actions (2026)
- Mobilising the project and establishing governance arrangements.
- Developing a programme-level Theory of Change.
- Mapping and engaging stakeholders.
- Analysing access to nature data and mapping across the region.
- Developing toolkit architecture and learning packages.
- Planning outreach and engagement activities.
- Developing a project pipeline methodology and readiness matrix.
- Having early conversations with stakeholders.
- Testing, trialling and observing stakeholder needs.
- Scoping a nature investment framework.
- Developing a communications strategy.
- Outlining a monitoring and evaluation framework.
Next Steps
More information on programme activities, delivery milestones and opportunities through Years 2 and 3 will be published as the programme develops.
More Information
Contact Us
nature@liverpoolcityregion.gov.uk
#LCRNatureTogether
Delivered in partnership with
