The role of National Parks in a Green Recovery 

We’ve had a run of government announcements this month around the Green Recovery – including talk of creating new National Parks (read our position statement on this here), an extra £40m for nature recovery projects, and a Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, which included just one mention of nature: tree-planting. 

While we of course welcome any extra investment, it’s important to put this into context: there are currently almost £400m worth of shovel-ready projects which are seeking funding. Elsewhere, the treasury has allocated £27bn for roadbuilding. 

We know that our existing National Parks are facing very difficult decisions around their own budgets and we need assurances that our National Parks – current and future – will have the long-term funding they need to play their part in a Green Recovery.  

Read our Chief Executive’s response to the recent announcements here.

Creating Slow Ways as part of our national transport infrastructure

Walking can improve health and wellbeing, tackle the climate and ecological emergencies, improve our environment and bring joy to people's lives. 

It can also can offer a way to save money and an active alternative to public transport, be part of Covid-19 recovery thinking and bring the outdoors more into our patterns of work, education and spending time together. 

While there are thousands of miles of paths linking places across the country, there isn't a comprehensive network designed to help people walk off-road connecting all towns and cities as well as thousands of villages. That is what the Slow Ways project aims to do. 

During the spring lockdown, 700 volunteers collaborated to draft a new national network of 7,000 Slow Ways walking routes. The project’s next challenge is to find 10,000 volunteers to walk, check and review these Slow Ways routes.   

The Slow Ways Team will be holding a series of webinars on Zoom in December and January. These will be a chance to learn more about the project, discover how you can get involved and ask questions. See all the dates and sign up here. 

(Photo © Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority)

Mosaic's Yvonne Witter on the BBC Women's Hour Power List 

We were pleased to see Yvonne Witter, member representative for engagement with the Peak District National Park Authority and a community champion for our Mosaic project, recognised in the BBC Women's Hour Power List 2020: Our Planet as one of the "30 inspiring women whose work is making a significant positive contribution to the environment and the sustainability of our planet."

The judges said: "Yvonne Witter’s passion for being outdoors is infectious, so it’s little wonder she dedicates her free time to sharing it with others. As leader of the Peak District Mosaic group and an Ordnance Survey Get Outside Champion, she encourages Black and minority ethnic groups to get out of the city and into nature. She’s been joined by people from all walks of life, including professionals, students and refugees, mentoring and supporting them to become Peak District enthusiasts too.

"Yvonne is a strong advocate for the benefits of being outdoors for both physical and mental health, and believes a weekend spent walking is a weekend well spent. She constantly strives to learn more about the natural world and is passing on her knowledge for the benefit of others, the National Park and the wildlife within it. National Parks UK has described her work as 'transformative'." Well done, Yvonne, and keep up the good work!



You can read a full interview with Yvonne in the autumn issue of our Friends' magazine Viewpoint. To receive this magazine in the future, please sign up as our Friend on www.cnp.org.uk/join. Or, to give a membership of Campaign for National Parks as a gift to someone, please email our Supporter Care and Administrative Assistant Katja on [email protected]. 

(Photo of Yvonne at the Mosaic parliamentary reception in 2012 © Victor de Jesus)

#GivingTuesday campaign offers chance to #GiveBack2020

Tuesday 1 December is #GivingTuesday, designed as the antidote to Black Friday. We are encouraging supporters and would-be supporters to donate to our charity and not only help us sustain our ongoing work to protect and improve National Parks, but to expand on this and engage with even more people. We know it has been a hard year for many, but our National Parks have been there for us – we need to be there for them too and now is the chance to #GiveBack2020. 

If you are shopping online, you can also support us via EasyFundraising or Amazon Smile without it costing you an extra penny.  

New CNP team member

This month we welcomed our new Campaigns and Communications Manager Laura Williams who will be working for CNP three days a week (usually Tuesday to Thursday) overseeing our communications. Laura brings valuable experience in charity and political communications and marketing for membership organisations (National Trust, House of Commons and Bristol Women’s Commission). She is also a trained journalist, writing for a range of publications including the Telegraph, Independent and Metro. Take note of her email address [email protected] and put it on your safe senders list, as she will be taking on the delivery of these monthly e-news soon too.

Latest blog

Our long-term ex-Trustee Anne Robinson is calling for better public transport to National Parks and a better solution than new link roads to the Peak District National Park.

And finally…