Cornwall Wildlife Trust warns National Lottery may drop nature

A charity that has spent decades using Lottery cash to buy up clifftops, restore rivers and bring wildlife back to the county says that funding stream could soon look very different, and there’s only a short window left to have a say on it.

Why Cornwall Wildlife Trust is worried

Cornwall Wildlife Trust says the future of National Lottery funding is currently being decided, and it isn’t happy with the direction things are heading. The charity says a UK Government consultation could see nature dropped from the official definition of “heritage”, something that would put future National Lottery Heritage Fund support for wildlife and community projects at risk.

What Lottery money has already done here

Over the years, National Lottery Heritage Fund grants have backed work Cornwall Wildlife Trust describes as vital for wildlife locally, from landscape-scale nature recovery through the Tor to Shore project to land purchases that lock in protection for precious habitats for future generations.

That’s the part the charity is trying to defend. Under the wording currently on the table, heritage is described as covering things like historic buildings, public parks and community archaeology, with nature left out of the list. Cornwall Wildlife Trust argues that isn’t a deliberate snub so much as an oversight, but the practical effect would be the same. New projects built around saving threatened species and restoring landscapes could fall outside what the Heritage Fund is able to pay for.

Time is short to respond

The consultation, or “call for evidence”, only has a short window left to run, and Cornwall Wildlife Trust wants as many people as possible to use it. The charity says responding takes just a few minutes and could help make sure projects that benefit both people and wildlife carry on getting support in Cornwall and beyond.

How to add your voice

Cornwall Wildlife Trust has put together a response form that lays out the consultation’s main questions in one place, with space to add your own words too. It covers which causes should be prioritised for Lottery good-cause funding, how that funding should be split, and whether the amount an area receives should be tied to how many Lottery tickets are sold there, something the charity says would leave areas with smaller populations worse off.

The message from the charity is a simple one. Nature connects Cornwall’s past, present and future, and it wants that written into the definition, not left to fall through the gap.

📷Hiking at Kilmar Toor on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall