I ddarllen y blog yma yng Nghymraeg, cliciwch yma os gwelwch yn dda.From the wildflower meadows of Forest Farm right down to the wilderness of Flat Holm Island, Giving Nature a Home in Cardiff has been busy getting children and families closer to nature since the project began back in 2014. We’ve provided free outreach sessions to 60% of Cardiff primary schools, engaging over 13,600 children with nature. We’ve helped communities in 90% of Cardiff wards to spend more time with wildlife on their doorstep through free family events, and worked with local volunteers who’ve donated a fantastic 3,600 hours of their time to help wildlife in the city.
We’ve been popping up in parks, community hubs and green spaces across Cardiff providing fun outdoor activities for young people – from juicy worm hunts to wildlife gardening workshops. We’ve delivered free outreach sessions to Cardiff primary schools to help them discover all the plants and animals that live in their school grounds, in turn igniting a new found curiosity for nature. However we still have plenty of work to do and we now want to encourage even more families across the city to spend time outdoors discovering and enjoying the wildlife in their community.Families are going wild for nature… By inviting children to splash around in their wellies, get together for some pond dipping or get muddy on a minibeast hunt, we established the most exciting wildlife club in Cardiff in April 2016. Cardiff Wildlife Detectives encourages families to spend some quality time together exploring in the wild and we now work with over 30 families in Cardiff. We’ve been rock pooling at Sully beach, coppicing trees at Forest Farm and discovering wildlife along Bute Park’s Explorer Trail. Children as young as two have found sheer delight pulling up giant invasive plants taller than them, whilst 15 year olds have been fascinated by the creatures they’ve caught in the pond at Forest Farm. We want to encourage families to get out and enjoy everything the great outdoors has to offer, as once you start looking you will find all sorts of wildlife right under your nose!
From a giant spider web to virtual reality in the park...Even more people enjoyed the wonders of Cardiff’s wildlife in 2015 as we brought creativity and innovation to Bute Park in the form of TAPE. Delivered in partnership with arts organisation, Migrations, TAPE allowed 74,000 people to discover and crawl around inside a giant spider’s web in the trees, providing them with a completely different perspective about the natural world.
The creativity didn’t stop there as we teamed up again with Migrations in summer 2016 with the arrival of In the Eyes of the Animal – a 360 degree virtual reality experience in the heart of Bute Pak. Families were transported on a multi-sensory journey all through the eyes of a midge, a dragonfly, a frog and an owl native to the park. And last but not least, our latest venture with Migrations, Boombox Caerdydd, will film 100 Cardiff residents as they dance in their favourite green spaces in the city, celebrating their connection with nature and the places they feel it most.
TAPE and In the Eyes of the Animal were incredibly successful, attracting a total of 77,000 visitors to Bute Park, helping people to identify with wildlife and enjoy the sense of wonder that nature evokes in new and unique ways.
Looking to the future... Sadly, we now know that only 1 child in every 8 in Wales is reasonably connected with the natural environment and 1 in every 14 species in Wales is facing extinction. This, without question, is cause to continue the vital work achieved through Giving Nature a Home in Cardiff. In doing so we will hopefully enable even more children and families to spend time with wildlife in their city, inspiring them to take action to not only support nature but to treasure it.
Giving Nature a Home in Cardiff is currently funded by Tesco customers through the Welsh carrier bag levy until 31 March 2017 and the project is now sourcing funding to continue with its work. However we’re delighted to confirm that thanks to Aldi, through the UK carrier bag levy, the project’s schools outreach work can continue until 2019. If you’d like more information about the project, please email cymru@rspb.org.uk
Images: Martyn Poynor, boy dancing by Migrations