ecoACTIVE is an innovative environmental education charity with a reputation for using hands-on, practical approaches to explore complex issues of sustainability.
ecoACTIVE’s mission is to create a world where young people and communities are agents of change for creating a better planet. Locally embedded in East London, it aims to empower young people, families and adults in urban areas to take action, gain knowledge and skills, and feel more connected to their local environment.
Urban areas are often undervalued as sites for increasing biodiversity and studies show that poorer communities in particular tend to be located within lower quality natural environments. Nearly all respondents (95%) in ecoACTIVE’s 2023 neighbourhood survey were worried about biodiversity decline and four in five people wanted to do more to help wildlife. Many people eocACTIVE work with feel like they cannot reach nature easily from their homes, which is impacting their wellbeing, and they worry their children do not feel confident in natural spaces.
To tackle this, ecoACTIVE has supported resident volunteers on social housing estates to set up and manage small community gardens in Hackney. The team have assisted with improving the physical infrastructure of gardens, as well as helping with skills building and sharing, and supporting residents to run events. Through this project, they have successfully upskilled community members at 18 community gardens, who now manage these spaces themselves. ecoACTIVE’s work helps nature to thrive and following the introduction of their Ecologist (a Hackney local), 62 plant species were identified growing on the pavements of one street next to Daubeney Fields in Clapton.
With support from the Foundation, ecoACTIVE will restore 3 small green sites in the area of Clapton Park Estate. This area of Hackney has been named one of the top 10 ‘food deserts’ in Greater London. Tenants have expressed a desire to give the area an environmental uplift to increase climate resilience as well as increasing a sense of ownership and pride on the estate.
The grant to ecoACTIVE will support its experienced gardeners to train young people and adults on the estate on how to grow, cultivate and harvest food, and how to increase biodiversity with wildlife-friendly gardening. Training opportunities and community events will provide a chance for local people to interact with others from their community. Upskilling local residents will also allow ecoACTIVE to take a step back from intensively managing these spaces, as training will enable participants to take ownership of the gardens and mini-allotments. ecoACTIVE will partner with local teams and organisations to deliver this work, such as Pedro Club, Hackney’s Youth Offending Team and Clapton Green Gym.
The 3 green spaces will be integrated into ecoACTIVE’s flagship project, the Hackney Buzzline. This is an innovative three-year project that will create a pollinator corridor from ecoACTIVE’s existing green spaces as well as 18 new ones, connecting them across four kilometres through Hackney. Wildlife corridors are vital to help species forage, breed and move through their local green infrastructure and the Hackney Buzzline will look to create space for nature every 100 metres. Particularly in urban and built up areas, it is important to mimic natural structures and processes that allow wildlife to travel safely between spaces, find food, shelter and resting sites, and maintain genetic diversity.
The route incorporates three primary schools and nine community hubs and gardens. It will maximise the impact of ecoACTIVE’s existing work and provide exciting new opportunities for the local community. Community members will be engaged and upskilled throughout, ensuring that the pollinator habitats created along the Buzzline can be maintained well into the future.
