What if every neighbourhood in London had a local champion to help people and nature be better connected?

Launched in 2019, London National Park City is the long term grassroots movement for everyone making our city greener, healthier and wilder.

Our community of 130 active volunteer Rangers lead walks, talks, workshops, outdoor activities, nature engagement, climate positive actions, and health and wellbeing activities in their own neighbourhoods across London. 

Each of our Rangers is drawn from and representative of their own community - your support helps each of our Rangers be more impactful and helps connect hundreds more Londoners with urban nature. (And maybe you could even apply to be one of our next Rangers when applications open in the spring of 2025.)

What if we recruited, trained and supported a volunteer Ranger in every London neighbourhood, across the 704 wards and 33 council areas of the capital? How amazing would that be to help drive an urgent movement for change, led by local people in every part of London.

The funding we raise from individual donations such as yours is critical to directly support the projects that our Rangers lead within neighbourhoods across London. And thanks to the Aviva Community Fund every donation up to £250 will be doubled!

How you can get involved

We'll use the money raised from your donation to directly support Ranger led projects within each neighbourhood. We’d like to fund dozens of small projects of  between £250 - £1,000, which goes towards all of the practical stuff that allows projects to happen; equipment and materials to support practical gardening, construction, planting, and other hands-on outdoor activities.  

Every penny of your individual match-funded donation will be used to support these Ranger projects - every tenner really does make a difference!

And not only can you help fund these projects through your donations, you’ll also be able to take part and get involved yourself. If you join our free community at community.nationalparkcity.org you can connect with Ranger and community-led projects in your own area. So you can chip in, and join in as well!

We’ll soon be opening our new Visitors Centre at 80 Mortimer Street, just up from Oxford Circus, later in December with a new programme of public events starting in January. So we hope you’ll come along and say hello in person as well.

Why this is important

The UK is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world, and biodiversity in London is under tremendous risk. The climate and biodiversity crises are driven by people’s disconnection from nature, especially in cities.

When people and communities are connected with nature, they are more likely to exhibit pro-environmental behaviours and take action to mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss. Re-connecting people and nature is a crucial and timely intervention.

Our Rangers help bring Londoners together to understand how urban nature is important and diverse, providing influence, inspiration and practical ways for people to take action to nurture and protect nature within their local communities.

We help people think differently about their city, imagining new ways of living in the urban areas, spending more quality time outdoors, and taking practical action within their community.

It's never been more important to reconnect people with nature, and to help more people recognise how wild and rich in biodiversity our city is with over 15,000 species, 8.4 million trees (nearly one for each of us), and almost half of the city comprising of green and blue space with our many wonderful, parks, gardens, rivers, allotments and community spaces. 

Being a Ranger really makes a difference

Our Rangers are drawn from and represent the diverse communities of London: 8.2% identify as having a disability, 18.6% identify as LGBTIQ+, 17.0% come from a lower socio-economic background, 12 religion/faith groups and 25 ethnic communities are represented.

For the next round of our Ranger recruitment we are looking to increase the number of Rangers from the most deprived local authorities in each of London's North, South, East, West and Central sub-regions by 25% (Enfield, Croydon, Barking & Dagenham, Hounslow & Islington respectively - ONS Census data 2021).

We’ll work with each Borough to identify priority communities and actively recruit volunteers who are already active, or with support could become more active; to ensure that we reflect the diverse communities of London, and are able to assemble a pool of passionate individuals who can help us shape the direction of our campaigns and priorities.

“National Park City gives me hope and positivity for London's ecological future, during these uncertain times, where we can make changes on our very doorstep.”

Ranger Kabir, Hillingdon

“Being a Ranger has inspired me to take action on a personal, professional and wider community level.”

Ranger Kate, Camden

“It’s inspired and given me the motivation to explore new avenues in my work as a forest school facilitator. Connecting with like minded people working towards the same goal.”

Ranger Paula, Islington

Choose your rewards

For everyone who donates at least £10 you'll get to adopt one of London's 704 council wards and have your name associated with our interactive London map. (You can find out which ward you live in by popping your postcode into mySociety's MapIt.)

Pick up a copy of our London National Park City urban nature map and we'll post you a copy or you can pick it up when you visit our new visitors centre off Regent Street.

Select your National Park City London Borough T-Shirt. Just tell us your size, London Borough, and choose from six colours; Black, Grey, Red, Green, Blue or Purple. We'll get it printed and sent off to you in January. (We'll also have lots of other T-Shirt slogans available if you have something specific in mind.)

If you or your organisation would like to sponsor one of our festival weeks for £250 then get in touch and we'll have a chat about which week would be the best fit for you.