Exciting opportunities to give nature a helping hand

Exciting opportunities to give nature a helping hand

by John Clark

The ‘Natur am Byth!’ partnership is a new flagship Green Recovery project, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.  

It unites nine environmental charities with Natural Resources Wales (NRW) to deliver Wales’ largest natural heritage and community outreach programme to save species from extinction and reconnect people with nature.

John Clark, Project Manager, tells us more about this new initiative and some exciting job opportunities…

There is a commitment in Wales, from the highest level, to tackle our startling decline in biodiversity.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s (NLHF) funding to develop - over the next 18 months - a wide-ranging programme to conserve Wales’ most threatened species is needed now more than ever.

Natur am Byth, as the programme is called, is being designed to play an important and inspiring part in tackling Wales’ Nature Emergency.

For the first time in Wales, our partnership brings together a wide range of voluntary organisations to work alongside NRW on ambitious projects in various parts of Wales.

The 10 core partners in Natur am Byth are Amphibian & Reptile Conservation; Bat Conservation Trust; Buglife; Bumblebee Conservation Trust; Butterfly Conservation; Plantlife; Marine Conservation Society; RSPB; Vincent Wildlife Trust, and NRW.

The Welsh Government and NRW are also providing significant match funding to support the programme. Natur am Byth shares the same partners as our species recovery projects in England and Scotland – Back from the Brink  and Species on the Edge . Learning from them, along with NLHF's evaluation of their work, has been invaluable as we shape the development of Natur am Byth. 

Funding success

A sum of £932,700 was awarded to the partnership by NLHF last month to support the 18-month development phase, after which a stage two application will be submitted, bringing the total request to NLHF to £5 million for a four-year programme of actions and activities from 2023 to 2027.

That’s when the exciting practical conservation, community and public engagement work will take place – if we are successful with our stage two bid!

Building our team across the partnership

We’ve just launched the process of recruiting a high-quality team to lead the exciting co-production and conservation planning work required to present to the NLHF in our stage two bid. 

We need passionate project officers, ecologists and engagement professionals. If that sounds like you, please check out the NRW jobs page and follow #naturambyth across all the partners’ social media for job vacancies. 

Recruitment for the following roles will be staggered from now into the autumn to reflect different start dates. So, be sure to check out all the upcoming opportunities across the partnership.

Job Title	Location	Employer	Full Time or Part Time	Contract Length; Start date	Advertised Salary
Project Development Officer – Natur am Byth! (Swansea Bay)	South West or South Wales Central	Buglife	Part time - 0.6                      FTE	16months from Oct/Nov 2021	£29,281 (pro rata)
Senior Advisor - People Engagement - Natur am Byth	Flexible	NRW	Full Time	16months from Nov 2021	£35,288
Project Development Officer	North West Wales	RSPB	Full Time	14months from Nov 2021	£26,867
Project Development Officer – Natur am Byth! (High Brown Fritillary)	South Wales	Butterfly Conservation	Part time - 0.6                      FTE	15months from Dec 2021	£28,000 (pro rata)
Natur am Byth! Development Officer (Shrill carder bee)	South Wales	Bumblebee Conservation Trust	Part time - 0.4                      FTE	15months from Dec 2021	£23,000 pro rata
Natur am Byth – Integrated Plant Delivery – Vascular Plants Officer - Development	Flexible, with preference for North Wales	Plantlife	Full Time	15months from Dec 2021	£28,500
Natur am Byth – Integrated Plant Delivery – Lichens & Bryophytes Officer - Development	Flexible	Plantlife	Full Time	15months from Dec 2021	£28,500
Project Officer - Natur am Byth	Flexible	NRW	Part time - 0.5                      FTE	10months from Apr 2022	£30,873 (pro rata)

The new team and contractors will be undertaking species surveys and conservation planning across many of Wales’ most treasured landscapes. They will also be working closely with a diverse range of communities to inspire conversations on what matters to them, and how connecting with nature can support well-being and Covid recovery.

It is vital that our plans for the four-year delivery phase reflect the needs of people as well as the needs of our most threatened species. 

How did we find our focus?

Natur am Byth partners have identified species facing the greatest threat of extinction and which are of particular importance, in consultation with natural heritage experts across the UK. 

The partnership mapped 62 species against themes and identified the landscapes and coastal areas to target conservation and engagement programme. 

Natur am Byth is unique in the way we’re integrating management issues on land and in the sea, supporting vulnerable marine species as well as those on land and in freshwater. 

Our areas of focus are the Llŷn peninsula and Anglesey; Pembrokeshire; Gower and Swansea City; Neath Port Talbot and Bridgend; Vale of Glamorgan, Cardiff and Newport Gwent Levels; Snowdonia; Powys; Wrexham. 

In most of these areas the project will employ an integrated approach across habitats to deliver multiple benefits for rare species.  But some locations also represent isolated populations of species on the brink of extinction and in need of intensive care.

How to find out more

To keep up to date with the development phase please follow #naturambyth hashtag across any of the partners’ social media channels or contact John Clark

@BuglifeCymru

@RSPBCymru

@Arc_Bytes

@savebutterflies

@BumblebeeTrust

@PlantlifeCymru

@MCSUK

@vincentwildlife

@_BCT_

@NatResWales