To mark 20 years of The National Lottery, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) is today celebrating the achievements of its innovative Landscape Partnership programme. This programme runs right across the UK with over 17,504 km of landscapes – the combined size of Wales, Devon and Cornwall - being funded thanks to Lottery players. A further £20m has also just been invested in nine new schemes in England and Scotland.

HLF’s Landscape Partnership programme is the most significant grant scheme in existence for landscape-scale projects delivering conservation and sustainability for distinctive landscape projects. Projects have:

• Funded the planting of over 5,500 trees
• Allowed more than 134 ha of grassland and heath sites to be expanded
• Restored over 936 ha of coastal and floodplain grazing marsh  to favourable condition
• Repaired over 30 km of dry stone walls
• Engaged over 150,000 people in participation and learning activities
• Helped more than 14,000 volunteers get involved – the equivalent of 20,000 working days
• Helped 1,250 people attend 3,870 volunteer training days

• Benefited nearly 1,000 schools, colleges and universities with  over 35,000 pupils/students learning about and getting involved in their local landscape

Drew Bennellick, HLF Head of Landscape and Natural Heritage, said: “On the eve of The National Lottery’s 20th birthday, this is the perfect moment to thank Lottery players for helping make possible our Landscape Partnership programme.  We couldn’t have done it without them.

“Ten years ago we developed Landscape Partnerships so that we could deliver conservation on a truly landscape scale. With so many habitats and species in decline and people becoming less and less connected to nature and the land, the programme was the first of its kind to allow conservationists to work at a cross-landscape scale. The programme has grown rapidly and is now leading the way in allowing many of our most treasured landscapes, as well as some of our most damaged, to be managed for the future in a sustainable way.

“Involving people as volunteers, training them as guides or helping them learn new skills has enabled local people to appreciate, value and speak up for the countryside. Our funding has led to new strategic partnerships between private, public, charitable and community bodies. It has also ensured that the UK’s most precious resource, our landscape, will be protected for future generations.  Thank you, Lottery players!”

Dr Tom Tew, HLF Trustee and CEO of the Environment Bank, added: "Protecting our special wildlife sites is critical but not enough - we absolutely need to restore whole landscapes as best we can. Though that takes a lot of effort and a lot of money, our Landscape Partnership programme brings together Heritage Lottery Fund support and whole communities that, together, make a big difference - for people and for wildlife - from marshes to moors, forests to fens. This is real conservation in action and there is so much here for our country to celebrate and be proud of, and all made possible by The National Lottery."

To mark the 20th birthday of The National Lottery, HLF is today announcing £20m of Landscape Partnership funding to nine projects in England and Scotland.

The successful projects are:

• Secrets of the Sands - the Greensand Ridge Landscape Partnership – earmarked grant of £1.8m, including £133,400 development funding
• The Fifth Continent - Romney Marsh Landscape Partnership – earmarked grant of £1.9m, including £230,300 development funding
• Samuel Palmer’s Earthly Paradise: The Darent Valley Landscape Partnership – earmarked grant of £2.2m, including £123,500 development funding
• From Miner to Major: The Real Sherwood Forest - earmarked grant of £2.6m, including £119,700 development funding
• Land of the Fanns, Essex  – earmarked grant of £1.4m, including £94,800 development funding
• The Carbon Landscape - Restoring Great Manchester Wetlands to the community – earmarked grant of £2.2m, including £212,800 development funding
• The Forester's Forest - Our Land Between Two Rivers (The Forest of Dean Landscape Partnership Programme) – earmarked grant of £2.9m, including £405,500 development funding
• South West Peak - A Landscape at a Crossroads – earmarked grant of £2.6m, including £154,300 development funding
• Tomintoul and Glenlivet Hidden Histories Landscape Partnership – earmarked grant of  £2.5m, including £171,600 development funding

Examples of successful Landscape Partnerships include:

• Lagan Valley Regional Park, Belfast (HLF grant: £1.6m)
  The first Landscape Partnership scheme in Northern Ireland is located within a 4,000 acre amenity parkland area, stretching 11 miles along both sides of the River Lagan, located on the outskirts of Belfast city centre.Managed by a broad partnership, the scheme implemented a number of projects which including the development of interpretation and education materials, species surveys and conservation, habitat management and enhancement and volunteer and community participation.
   
• Medway Gap ‘Valley of Visions’, Kent (HLF grant: £1.8m)
  ‘Valley of Visions’ is a partnership of national, regional and local organisations led by Kent County Council. The scheme focusses on 63km² of the Medway Gap area, conserving important chalk grassland and marshland in addition to exploring the cultural and industrial heritage of the landscape. A programme of training and volunteering opportunities for local people was also delivered, enhancing their ability to manage the landscape in the future

Notes to editors

The National Lottery has been changing lives for 20 years. £32bn has been raised for 430,000 projects across the UK since the first National Lottery draw on 19 November 1994.

A Landscape Partnership (LP) earmarked grant means that money has been set aside by HLF for the scheme in question. The applicant then progresses to the second round and submits a further, fully-developed application to secure the full award.

HLF’s Landscape Partnerships are helping bring together members of the community as well as local, regional, and national organisations to deliver schemes which benefit some of the UK’s most outstanding landscapes and rural communities. Grants range from £100,000 to £3m. The next closing date for LP applications is 1 June 2015 for decisions in October 2015.

More than 3,100 Land and Biodiversity projects have received over £1.2bn from HLF.

Further information

Please contact Katie Owen, HLF press office, on tel: (020) 7591 6036, mobile: 07973 613 820.