Official Nature Towns and Nature Cities
Towns and cities that are transforming for people and nature.
Learn more about accreditationNature Cities
The city of Birmingham
In Birmingham, the City Council joined forces with local communities, groups, environmental organisations, and national partners to become an official Nature City. This milestone recognises the city’s ambitious and inclusive approach to embedding nature into everyday life, making green spaces more accessible, equitable, and central to urban planning.
Birmingham’s commitment to place nature at the centre of everyday life is set out in its ambitious City of Nature plan, with the idea that access to nature is a right and not a privilege at its heart.
Cllr Majid Mahmood, cabinet member for environment and transport, said: “Through our 25-year City of Nature Plan, we’ve laid out a robust framework for transforming how nature is valued and integrated across Birmingham. We’re really leading the way in creating and recovering urban nature and are one of the greenest cities in Europe.
We work with community groups like Birmingham Tree People to plant trees in inner city areas such as Alum Rock, and in partnership with the National Trust, we’ve developed pocket parks across neighbourhoods. These are small but impactful green spaces that bring nature to people’s doorsteps while supporting wellbeing, biodiversity, and community pride.”
©National Trust Images / Trevor Ray Hart
Nature Towns
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole have collectively become Nature Towns. This award recognises BCP Council’s commitment alongside its partners to transform life for communities through providing more and better nature and green space.
BCP Council has committed to work hand-in-hand with partners to bring nature to the heart of communities, building on previous work such as that with The Parks Foundation to transform urban parks for people and nature. They will connect green spaces across the whole landscape, delivering more things to do and creating multi-functional green spaces that can be enjoyed by entire communities – from community parks with cafes, to allotments and smaller garden spaces.
Cllr Andy Hadley, portfolio holder for climate response, energy and environment at BCP Council, said: “It’s fantastic to see our ambitions and innovation recognised at a national level – particularly as we continue to invest in improving access to nature for all our residents. And receiving this recognition will help us to do just that.
We are blessed with incredible green spaces across our three towns and it is so important that we protect them for future generations. Our parks operations and countryside teams work brilliantly to maintain and restore our vast natural spaces and this accreditation is a well-deserved recognition of that.”
©National Trust Images / James Dobson