The Birmingham City of Nature Alliance is a growing network of organisations, community groups, businesses and public bodies working together to help Birmingham become a greener, healthier and fairer city. No single organisation can achieve this alone. By sharing knowledge, building partnerships and connecting people with opportunities, the Alliance helps many individual actions become part of one shared journey. Explore the organisations below to discover who is involved and how they can help.
The organisations below are current members of the Birmingham City of Nature Alliance. Each helps people connect with, care for or benefit from Birmingham’s green spaces and natural environment, while working together towards the shared vision of the City of Nature Plan. Many other organisations across Birmingham also contribute to this work, and we hope the Alliance will continue to grow:
🌿 Birmingham Open Spaces Forum (BOSF): Birmingham Open Spaces Forum – Birmingham Open Spaces Forum
🦉 Birmingham & Black Country Wildlife Trust: Home | Birmingham & Black Country Wildlife Trust
🌳 Birmingham TreePeople: Birmingham TreePeople
🌼 Birmingham Botanical Gardens: Birmingham Botanical Gardens | Birmingham Botanical Gardens
🌍 Community Environmental Trust (CET): HOME – Environmentaltrust.org.uk
🚴♀️ Ecobirmingham: Home – ecobirmingham
🌿 Field Studies Council: UK School Trips | School Field Trips | Art & Nature Courses
🌳Fruit and Nut Village: Fruit & Nut Village | Planting Orchards & Growing Forest Gardens
📚 Learning Journey:
🏘️ Legacy WM: Legacy West Midlands | Legacy West Midlands
🌼 Patchwork Meadow: The Patchwork Meadow – Bringing back pollinators. Enhancing urban landscapes. Connecting people.
🌱 Natural England: New tools to map where environmental pressures impact communities – GOV.UK
🚶♀️🎨 ROAM Kids: ROAM – Unsupervised Children’s Outdoor Play
🚶♀️ The Active Wellbeing Society (TAWS): The Active Wellbeing Society – The Active Wellbeing Society
💧 The Canal and River Trust: Canal & River Trust | Making life better by water
🐦 The RSPB: Sandwell Valley Nature Reserve, West Midlands – The RSPB
🏛️ The National Trust: Birmingham and West Midlands | Midlands | National Trust
🎨 The Parakeet Studio CIC: Home | The Parakeet Studio | Play + Process Art, West Midlands,UK
🌼The Springfield Project: The Springfield Project | Charity in Sparkhill, Birmingham
🌼 Thrive Birmingham: Birmingham – Thrive
💧🌳 The WASH Project – Ward End Park: WASH Project – Norton Hall Family & Children Centre Birmingham
Together, we meet monthly and are collaborating on the delivery of the City of Nature Plan bringing targeted support and investment into Birmingham’s six environmental justice priority wards: Bordesley & Highgate, Balsall Heath West, Castle Vale, Gravelly Hill, Nechells, and Pype Hayes.
We’re doing more than delivering improvements. We’re working to redefine what “green infrastructure” really means in a city like ours.
Reflecting on creating the City of Nature Alliance Model
“Together, We Grow”: Reflections from the Future Parks Accelerator and the Birth of the City of Nature Alliance
By the Community Facilitator for the Naturally Birmingham Future Parks Accelerator Project, Deborah Needle.
When I first stepped into the Future Parks Accelerator (FPA) project, I knew we were part of something ambitious. But I didn’t realise just how deeply it would challenge the way we think about parks not just as green spaces, but as a vital thread connecting every part of life in our city.
At its heart, the FPA project was a question: What if nature was at the centre of everything we do in Birmingham? What if it wasn’t an afterthought but the starting point?
We quickly realised that this couldn’t be about parks in isolation. It had to be about people. About health. About homes. About jobs, children, climate, transport, community, and culture. In short it had to be about everything. Because everything is connected. And if nature is the foundation of all we need to survive and thrive, then we must treat it as the common ground on which we all stand.
Planting the Seeds of a City-Wide Movement
That’s how the idea of the City of Nature Alliance was born not just as a working group, but as a movement. An open invitation for everyone who shares the dream of a greener, fairer, healthier Birmingham to step in and shape it.
We knew that a 25-year plan to protect and grow our green spaces couldn’t be built by one department, one organisation, or even one sector. We needed to build something rooted in deep collaboration a citywide alliance of individuals, community groups, organisations, and institutions, all aligned with a common purpose: to make nature part of daily life for every person in Birmingham, no matter who they are or where they live.
And let’s be honest this wasn’t going to be easy. We were asking people to break silos, to rethink systems, to reimagine what a park is, and to see nature not as a luxury, but as a lifeline.
From Vision to Action
Through the FPA project, we piloted this collaborative approach in five parks across Bordesley and Highgate—one of Birmingham’s most environmentally disadvantaged wards. The City of Nature Pilot wasn’t just about improvements to green space it was a test of a whole new way of working: co-designed, community-led, cross-sector, and committed to environmental justice.
We brought together people who care about biodiversity, mental health, youth work, food growing, art, active travel, trees, canals, birds, and bees. People who support others through social prescribing, through play, and through community organising. People who have been doing this work for years often quietly, often without recognition and invited them into a shared space to connect, align, and grow something bigger together. From that, the City of Nature Alliance began to take shape.
The City of Nature Alliance Pilot Feedback:
The City of Nature Alliance Workshops:
Finance and Funding: https://naturallybirmingham.org/city-of-nature-alliance-finance-workshop-resources/
Involvement: https://naturallybirmingham.org/city-of-nature-alliance-involved-city-workshop/
Communication: https://naturallybirmingham.org/city-of-nature-alliance-communicating-workshop/
Looking Ahead: The Work Has Only Just Begun
Although the FPA project has come to an end, I see it differently. For me and for many of us it feels like we’re only just getting started.
Because now we have a shared vision. A plan. A growing alliance.
But more importantly—we have momentum. And it’s powered not just by organisations, but by individuals: our Green Champions, residents, neighbours, young people, and elders—all finding their own connection to nature and building something hopeful from it.
So what’s next? More stories. More collaborations. More listening and learning. More co-creating. More bench chats. More celebrating every little wild flower pushing up through concrete and every child planting their first seed.
That’s the future I see: one where the City of Nature is not just a plan, but a place—real, shared, and thriving. And we’re building it. Together.
Want to be part of the journey?
If you or your organisation would like to find out more or join the City of Nature Alliance, we’d love to hear from you.
📩 Contact us at: cityofnature@birmingham.gov.uk
🌿 Learn more at: https://naturallybirmingham.org/birmingham-city-of-nature-delivery-framework/
Let’s make Birmingham a city where nature is at the heart of everything. Together, we grow.
Naturally Birmingham CIC 