National Park City campaign - London

London National Park city is a grassroots campaign and movement launched in 2014 in the UK by a group of citizens. Inspired by the concept of National Parks, the initiative aims to promote the idea of city as an ecosystem that should be protected and supported. The campaign defined the concept of a National Park City and created National Park City charter. The campaign worked with local government at city level (Greater London Authority) and lower levels (boroughs and wards) to secure political support and announce London as the first National Park City in the world in 2019. The campaign is working with residents, visitors and partners to "enjoy London’s great outdoors more; make the city greener, healthier and wilder; and promote London’s identity as a National Park City" by leading campaigns and supporting a range of activities. The campaign has partnered with the Mayor of London, who championed the concept in the London Environment Strategy in 2018.

Overview

Type of instrument:

Knowledge, communication and innovation instruments›Communication/awareness raising

Challenges addressed

Ecologic connectivity
Water management (e.g. reuse)
Green space management (e.g. accessibility)
Watershed restoration/water quality
Flood risk: pluvial and fluvial / soil permeability
Air quality
Social cohesion
Nature appropriation / stewardship
Reconnection to the biosphere / environmental education
Human health, comfort and well-being

Consideration of nature-based solutions:

The campaign has a variety of aims and recognizes how protecting urban nature can have diverse benefits, including improved air and water quality, positive impact on physical and mental health, social cohesion, reducing flood risk, stewardship of nature, city identity and biodiversity. The initiative aims for the city to become greener, with the greater diversity of natural wild spaces in order to improve air quality and the standards of everyday life for residents and visitors. The initiative wants to ensure that more children – and adults - will enjoy play, recreational and learning experiences outdoors, with a positive impact on physical and mental health.

Targeted (peri-)urban areas:

Parks and (semi)natural urban green areas

Blue areas

Green areas for water management

Good practice characteristics:

Support multifunctional NBS

Sustainable in the long-term

Locally appropriate

Potential to be replicated / upscaled

Innovative

Inclusivity

Governance

Non-governmental actor(s)

Initiating body:

Citizens or community groups / NGOs

Details about how the instrument was designed:

The campaign was originally started in 2014 by a group of citizens. In 2015, the initiative organised a series of public events, polls and consultations gathering ideas and creating a citizen movement. The proposal for the “Greater London National Park City” was collaboratively written by 347 individuals and organisations. In parallel, the campaign worked to secure political support at the borough and city level. For example, the campaign partnered with the Mayor of London, who championed the concept in the London Environment Strategy in 2018, and with local government at city level (Greater London Authority) and lower levels (boroughs and wards) to secure political support and announce London as the first National Park City in the world in 2019.

Targeted actors:

Public sector institution (e.g. school or hospital)

Private: household, real estate developer, business , financial

Citizens or community groups (CBOs), NGOs

Details about the implementation:

The Mayor of London works with the organisations to develop a series of campaigns to engage Londoners and enable them to participate in and contribute to London becoming the world's first national park city and improving London's green infrastructure, including advice to homeowners on planting in their gardens, and giving residents permission to garden public spaces. The London National Park City campaign itself involves citizens and community groups in implementing the goals of the campaign. It runs a network of schools, and operates a network of 150 volunteer rangers who work in their local communities and across the city on projects to tackle the climate & ecological crises, scale greening initiatives and conservation activities, run education and youth programmes and improve access to green and blue space. The goals of the campaign are being implemented by the Greater London Authority and the Mayor of London, who translate the goals into individual programs and activities.

How did the government support the instrument?:

In the first year of operation (2014), the campaign secured political support from three London boroughs: Kingston, Ealing, and Sutton. As the movement grew, the initiative worked with supporters to ask local politicians to back the proposal. In 2016, the initiative convinced all of the leading candidates for becoming the Mayor of London to announce their support for London National Park City. By 2017, the initiative was supported by 1,000 local politicians. In 2018, it was announced that London will become a National Park City after the majority of the city’s locally elected politicians and the Mayor of London had declared their support. The Mayor of London has included the concept in London Environment Strategy (2018) and aligned the city policies to match the campaigns demands, including matching the target of making 50% of London physically green.

Financing

Sources of funding:

Public local authority’s budget

Crowd-sourcing

Budget:

Above 10 000 000€

Details about instrument financing:

The initiative was originally financed with crowdfunding campaigns ran in 2015 and 2019. The Mayor of London has then provided a funding of ca 10,7500,000 EUR (9,000,000 GBP) to support National Park City activities. The founders predict that in the long-run, the initiative will take ca 4,700,000 EUR (4,000,000 GBP) to run per year, about the cost of running a rural National Park.

Monitoring, evaluation and impacts

Is a monitoring framework in place?:

Yes

The initiative's website indicates that it will publish a regular State of the National Park City Report that will reveal data on its objectives and will be used to inform the London National Park City Partnership’s progress, decision making and activities. However, no such report has been published yet.

Did an evaluation take place?:

Achieved outcomes and impacts:

The initiative has managed to achieve its goal of London being officially declared a National Park City. While a National Park City does not have the same legal status and development control and planning powers as other UK national parks, the declaration serves to officially recognise the value of London's natural capital, green infrastructure and living landscapes. The goals of the campaign - including the goal to make 50% of London physically green - were included in the London Environment Strategy (2018). The goals are being translated into concrete policies and activities by the government and the initiative itself, ranging from implementation campaigns (e.g. rewilding front gardens) to political campaigns (organising citizen assemblies). Specific steps are being taken to promote and upscale the concept of "National Park City". The National Park City Foundation cooperates with other partners (World Urban Parks, Salzburg Global Seminar) to establish a network of 25 national park cities. To this end, the partnership developed an Universal Charter for National Park Cities, that includes definition, goals, values and characteristics of National Park Cities ad helps to spread the concept. The Foundation created an online guidebook to help other cities implement the concept.

Success factors and lessons learned:

The campaign is innovative for its approach of taking an existing concept (National Park, protected area) and applying it to an urban area, which is not normally associated with wildlife or nature that is recognised as having value that should be protected. The campaign has been successful in creating a movement of citizens by creating multiple opportunities to participate in designing and implementing the campaign, suitable for citizens and community groups with varied backgrounds and interests. At the same time, the campaign has managed to grow from a small citizen initiative to securing wide political support through persistent local engagement at a variety of levels, going all the way to Mayor of London.

Sources and further information

References

List of references:

London National Park City (2022) Initiative Website. Available at: https://www.nationalparkcity.london

Crowdfunder (2022), Let's make London greener, healthier and wilder! Available at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/nationalparkcity

Mayor of London (2018), London Environment Strategy. Available at: https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/london_environment_strategy_0.pdf

Photos

Kirsten Downer, Támesis21