Credits: People’s Park for Nature
The People’s Park for Nature (PPN) is a community-led rewilding initiative in East Sussex, UK, transforming spaces from tiny balconies to vast acreages into connected wildlife corridors. Guided by the principle “Shaped by people, powered by hope, rooted in action,” PPN supports over 33 landowners across 15,000 acres and 40 mini-parks. The initiative fosters a win-win-win model for landowners, communities, and knowledge sharers. Through hands-on projects, bioacoustic monitoring showing a 7% biodiversity increase, and nature-based economic ventures like “Nature on Tap,” PPN is successfully building a replicable model for climate resilience and community-driven nature recovery.
Step into your inner time machine – you know, the one you use to make future plans – and try to imagine where you live, your local area or street, with you and your neighbours in the future.
Let your inner time machine bring you to a place where you’re invited to connect with nature from the ground up… Credit: PPN
Now, imagine a place where the community has decided how they want it to be. Breathe in; perhaps the air is cleaner and cooler beneath the shade of trees, scrub and hedges. Perhaps the area has a stream or river with fish that children dip their toes into, one that is less susceptible to flooding and drying up, as it wiggles past your houses. Imagine the ties between the community that has formed and on top of all that, nature has space to come back to life. The neighbourly hedgehogs, night-time foxes and dusk-dancing bats return.
That kind of choice is at the heart of rewilding and that of the People’s Park for Nature (PPN), our Alliance Partner. This community-led initiative in East Sussex is all about transforming core areas – from tiny balconies to vast acres – into a connected corridor for wildlife and a source of joy and well-being for people.
People’s Park for Nature believes that when we connect with nature, we become inspired to protect it. Credit: PPN
Breaking Down the Barriers
The ‘something special’ about People’s Park for Nature is their unwavering commitment to making rewilding accessible to everyone. They understand that nature recovery shouldn’t be exclusive to those with large budgets or who happen to live next door to a rewilding project. The People’s Park for Nature is actively breaking down these barriers.
“Shaped by people, powered by hope, rooted in action” is their guiding principle. They’ve rallied 33 landowners who have committed over 15000 acres to their vision. There are currently 40 ‘mini parks’ – this includes everything from a balcony window box to a whole 490-acre biodynamic farming and rewilding site. They celebrate every space, big or small, seeing them all as vital parts of a larger mosaic.
It is a win-win-win relationship: landowners receive free advice, training and hands-on help to increase nature on their land, community has access to more wild places and a whole array of action to get stuck into, and knowledge sharers underpin the system with paid roles in increasing nature connection in the local area.
As their name indicates, People’s Park for Nature are all about engaging people with Nature. Here, a woman is awared a certificate for “committing to principles that foster harmony between people and nature”. Credit: PPN
Enabling a community of small-scale rewilders
Their commitment to community-driven rewilding for everyone is evidenced in their diverse sites, for instance:
- Locals can visit 25 Grantham Bank in Barcombe, for free advice on pond building and the chance to view a Beaver dam-inspired pond brimming with wildlife.
- Laughton Greenwood – a 200 acre community managed woodland where local people are working together to restore nature and celebrate it with hands-on activities year-round.
- Peverells Community Garden in Seaford always welcomes new volunteers with passions for gardening, carpentry, composting, or simply people wanting to spend time in a vibrant community space.
Bringing the community together to build Beaver dams. Credit: PPN
In 2025, they created “mini Beaver dams” and “Bison sandpits” in urban gardens – brilliant ways to demonstrate how nature’s engineers benefit all sorts of wildlife, right in our neighbourhoods. Who wouldn’t want to have a go at mimicking a Bison?
In 2026 they followed this up by putting together a ‘Species Recovery Committee’. The committee will explore opportunities to bring back three species capable of having profound effects on ecosystems in a way that can involve and engage local communities throughout the process and beyond.
In the meantime the team distributes free seeds, plants, pond liners, camera traps, and nest boxes, as tools for nature restoration – put directly into people’s hands. And it is working: “Wildlife is thriving, neighbors are coming together in new ways, and practical knowledge is spreading” says the team. The most compelling evidence for this is coming from their bioacoustic monitoring boxes which are positioned at sites across the park. Data from these boxes has shown that in the last 12 months biodiversity has increased by 7% across 5 of these sites, providing seeds of hope for everybody involved!
People’s Park for Nature uses hands-on, engaging and imaginative ways for people to learn about and fall in love with the natural world. Here, creatively bringing wild beings right into our cities! Credit: PPN
Deepening Nature Connection, Together
People’s Park for Nature believes that when we connect with nature, we become inspired to protect it, and by way of interconnection, protect ourselves and the systems we rely on in the process. They are creating opportunities for everyone to experience the wild, so they can fall in love with it.
Their members hosted a fantastic array of events in 2025, including herb gardens, bat nights, glow-worm walks, gardening clubs, poetry evenings, open days, forest school sessions, and citizen science workshops. These are hands-on, engaging and imaginative ways for people to learn about and fall in love with the natural world.
Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, they’re planning art-based nature trails and installations to deepen this connection through creativity and storytelling. It’s all about moving beyond just thinking about nature to feeling it.
Citizen science: installing bioacoustic measuring devices to record and monitor Bird populations. Credit: PPN
Measuring Impact, Growing Momentum
People’s Park for Nature is measuring their impact and building a locally-rooted movement. Their citizen science projects have recorded an incredible 153,107 bird calls and identified 27 species of conservation concern. They are also championing a nature-based economy, working with landowners and businesses to create opportunities for both nature recovery and local livelihoods. For example they recently teamed up with local craft beer specialist – Beak Brewery – to create a new nature and beer tasting experience called ‘Nature on Tap’. All proceeds from the experience support nature restoration projects across the Park.
They hope that their actions in the Ouse Valley will provide an inspiring and replicable model for the community to build a future space that they too want to see – in the UK and beyond!
They have their sights set on scale: they plan to establish a shared fund to invest in larger projects, such as purchasing new land for rewilding and food production.
With a growing network of over 80 members and a bold – and tangible – vision to establish the Lower Ouse Valley as a beacon of climate resilience and nature recovery, the People’s Park for Nature is shaping a wilder, more connected future for everyone. They are proving that with a shared dream and collective action, we can all be a part of rewilding.
We are proud to welcome the People’s Park for Nature to our Alliance.
