This year, we completed the first round of our National Parks New Perspectives programme. Thanks to generous funding and our partner Ocean City Media, we awarded 10 early-career communicators bursaries and expert training to share their stories of National Parks. 

From January to September, we shared the final seven projects, from a short film about peatland carbon capture in the Peak District to a booklet exploring public transport-accessible walks in Dartmoor. 

In July, we held our annual National Park Protector Awards ceremony in the Houses of Parliament. It was a great opportunity to raise the profile of National Parks and celebrate the people and groups doing great work to protect, restore and welcome people to them. 

Our winners included nature recovery efforts in Dartmoor, Exmoor and The Broads, a project organising treks for BAME groups across the Parks, and an incredible campaign to save the Lake District from sewage pollution. 

In March, we welcomed a much needed Government bailout of £4.4m for National Park Authorities in England which were facing an ‘existential crisis’. Alongside National Park Societies and other supporters we campaigned to highlight the scale of the crisis caused by successive cuts. 

At the end of November, the Government announced a package of measures, including an additional £15m of funding for National Parks and plans to create a new National Park in England. This is a significant opportunity for the Government to do something different and create a National Park for nature that is able to respond to current climate and biodiversity challenges.

In December, the independent review into Dartmoor’s Protected Areas published their report.  

It identified that the “top priority” is to restore the hydrology of the moor. However, there was little recognition that the dire state of Dartmoor’s SSSIs has been exacerbated by a decade of cuts. We agree that “the way Dartmoor is managed needs to change radically and urgently” and hope Government responds at pace to provide much-needed support to the Park as well as its commoners and great projects like our award winner the South West Peatland Partnership working to restore Dartmoor's most precious habitats. 

We are incredibly grateful to our supporters who helped us achieve our biggest online appeal target yet, raising a massive £15,092 for nature in National Parks through the Big Give. These funds will mean that we can bring the National Park movement together like never before in 2024.  

A big thanks to Iolo Williams and Kate Ashbrook for being the faces of the appeal and to our anonymous pledgers who match-funded many of the donations.  

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Will you help is make 2024 and even bigger and better year for National Parks? Fill out our anonymous short today - it only takes a few minutes!