Making Space for Nature
We Need to Think Bigger
For years, we’ve focused on protecting our best wild places - nature reserves, ancient woodlands and special sites. This work matters, but it hasn't stopped the loss of nature and it's not going to be enough to bring nature back into everyone’s life. You can find out more about this in our 2025 State of Nature in Derbyshire report.
Wildlife can't survive in small, isolated patches. It needs connected landscapes where animals can move freely, ecosystems can function properly and nature has room to recover.
In 2010, Sir John Lawton's ground-breaking report, "Making Space for Nature", showed us what we need: Bigger, Better, More and more Joined Up spaces for nature.
The Making Space for Nature programme is a radical part of our response at DWT, alongside our landscape scale programmes. We're using new funding mechanisms to create new spaces for nature, helping to create connected landscapes.
The Four Principles
Bigger Spaces - We have to think at scale. Our sites are getting bigger and we will expand them when we can, ideally by extending them into ecologically poor quality land. When nature has room to breathe, amazing things happen.
Better Spaces - We want to work with natural processes to create the right habitat in the right place. People and nature need access to good quality spaces, not just any green space, but nature rich woodlands, wetlands and grasslands that people and wildlife need.
More Spaces - Our traditional nature reserves can't do it alone. We need to create more sites across Derbyshire, with each new space strengthening the network.
Joined Up Spaces - The magic is in the connections. Our aim is that our new spaces link to existing nature spaces, so wildlife can flow across a healing landscape.
How We Do It
Let Nature Lead - We use natural processes wherever possible through rewilding and natural regeneration. Allowing nature to set the pace and the direction means more resilient ecosystems that will adapt naturally to change and allow us to create even more space for nature.
Close to Communities - All of our Making Space for Nature sites have open public access. We choose locations near where people live. Good quality nature isn’t a luxury. Everyone should live within 15 minutes of a nature-rich space.
A Nature Based Economy - Most conservation relies on grants and donations, then struggles to fund ongoing management. We've found new ways of making space for nature, through our sites providing valuable services like clean water, carbon storage and flood protection, plus wildlife habitats for new developments.
See it happening
Common Farm - Where Community Meets Rewilding
Wild Whittington: Transformation in Action
The Results
Wildlife Returning - We track everything carefully - bird numbers increasing, rare plants appearing, water getting cleaner and carbon being stored. The evidence shows this approach works.
Species Coming Home - Connected habitats create possibilities. Species that disappeared from Derbyshire could return - pine martens and other wildlife that belongs here. Each new site makes this more likely.
Landscapes Healing - We're not just creating patches. We're rebuilding networks, connecting fragments and helping nature function at the scale it needs.
What's Next
A Connected County - By 2030, we want 30% of Derbyshire managed for nature. Everyone within 15 minutes of good green space. Making Space for Nature helps to get us there.
Showing It's Possible - What we're doing in Derbyshire can work elsewhere. We're proving that big conservation can pay for itself. That nature and communities can thrive together.
A Living Landscape -When we create space for nature, we create space for wonder. Places where children discover wildlife. Landscapes where species recover. Communities that thrive alongside wild nature.
This is restoration of the connections between people and the living world.
Get involved
Developers: Wild Solutions creates habitat networks that work for wildlife and meet your needs.
Communities: Visit our sites. Join volunteer days. Help bring nature closer to your area.
Everyone: Your support helps us buy the sites that connect our fragmented landscape.