These projects will bring together a variety of partners to protect and nurture some of our most precious and vulnerable habitats and species and are part of a wider package of £16m of HLF support, also announced today.

Carole Souter, Chief Executive of HLF, said: “The Heritage Lottery Fund is one of the most important funders of biodiversity across the entire UK having invested in over 3,000 similar projects over the years. We’ve been able to help environmental charities look after some of our most vulnerable habitats, from acid grasslands and lowland meadows, to heathland and ancient woodland. This good news comes at a time when the recent State of Nature report illustrated just what a perilous state our natural heritage is in.

“These two new projects show how HLF can play a vital part in supporting biodiversity and may also act as an inspiration to others looking to develop projects to help people take care of, learn about and explore our precious natural heritage.”

Magnificent Meadows – £2.1m
HLF money will help Plantlife International deliver a three-year project of conservation work to safeguard nine meadow and grassland sites right across the UK including in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland as well as in the South East, South West and North East England.

Heavenly Heathland - £2.7m
The Great Heath Living Landscape area stretches from Poole Harbour to the New Forest encompassing Poole, Bournemouth, Christchurch and East Dorset. It is made up of an extremely diverse range of habitats including: lowland heathland; fens; acid grassland; coastal and floodplain grazing marsh; and ancient semi-natural woodland. Dorset Wildlife Trust is leading the initiative which will provide a unique opportunity to secure and enhance this Natural England ‘Focus Area’.

Other projects that have just received news of HLF funding are:

• The Bridgewater Canal, Salford – £3.6m
• Kimmeridge Fossil Museum, Dorset – £2.7m
• Limnerslease: ‘Saving the Studios’, Surrey – £2.4m
• South Tynedale Railways Preservation Society (STRPS) Heritage and Environmental Sustainability project - £4.3m

HLF has also awarded initial support plus development funding to the following three projects:

• Capability Brown Birthday and Festival – initial support of £905,200, including a development grant of £139,200
• Lister Steps Carnegie Community Hub, Liverpool – initial support of £4.1m, including a development grant of £224,700
• CITiZAN: the Coastal and Intertidal Zone Archaeological Network (spread across England’s coast) – initial support of £1.4m, including a development grant of £75,500

Notes to editors

Initial support plus development funding means the project meets our criteria for funding and we believe it has potential to deliver high-quality benefits and value for Lottery money. The application was in competition with other supportable projects, so this is an endorsement of outline proposals. The project will submit fully developed proposals to secure a firm award at a later date.

HLF is one of the main funders of natural heritage and has awarded £378m to over 3,000 natural heritage projects across the UK. This figure excludes support for natural heritage through HLF’s Landscape Partnership (LP) programme which has been running for a decade with over £160m invested in 91 different areas across the UK.

Further information

HLF press office: Katie Owen on 020 7591 6036, out of hours mobile: 07973 613 820.