Local Environment Fund

Supporting Nature’s Recovery

Biodiversity is the variety of living organisms, the genetic differences among them, and the communities and ecosystems in which they occur. We give grants to projects which support nature’s recovery in the local area.

TOE awards grants which create and enhance wildlife habitats and species.

Grants of up to £15,000 are available for projects that

  • Improve the overall biodiversity of habitats including woodlands, ponds, rivers, meadows, green spaces and the wider countryside.

  • Improve breeding or habitat conditions for particular species, e.g. planting nectar rich plants for bumblebees.

Grants of c.£500 are available via the TVERC Recorders’ Fund for projects that

  • Improve the quality, quantity and/or coverage of voluntary species recording in Berkshire and Oxfordshire.

Click on the photos below for case studies of some of the biodiversity projects supported via the Local Environment Fund.

Further information about Oxfordshire’s Conservation Target Areas and NERC Act S41 Habitats of Principal Importance (previously called BAP priority habitats and species) is available from Wild Oxfordshire. Guidelines on landscape character and biodiversity down to the Parish level can be found at The Oxfordshire Wildlife and Landscape Study (OWLS).

Further information on the distribution of priority habitats and species within Oxfordshire’s Conservation Target Areas and Berkshire’s Biodiversity Opportunity Areas is available from Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre.

If your project primarily involves habitat creation and enhancement, you may want to apply for funding through our Biodiversity Net Gain programme - phone us for further advice.