The CRN is part of a consortium partnership, led by the Royal Society for Nature Conservation (RSNC), which works to deliver and promote the £13.94 million Social, Economic and Environmental Development (SEED) Programme. All 12 consortium partners are experts in a range of environmental activities, all of which contribute to sustainable development.
The SEED Programme is funded by the New Opportunities Fund, a National Lottery 'good cause' distributor, through its Green Spaces and Sustainable Communities initiative. The New Opportunities Fund chose RSNC as an Award Partner to manage the programme and award grants to communities throughout England before the end of December 2004.
Environmental grants are available from the SEED Programme for projects requesting between £500 and £4,999 for smaller community projects and £5,000 to £100,000 for major projects.
Applications are welcome from local community groups, voluntary organisations, not-for-profit community businesses and local authorities in partnership with community groups. Priority is placed on helping disadvantaged communities and projects that actively involve local people in making a real difference to their environment and to their quality of life. The projects should promote sustainability and local economic development and demonstrate they will have lasting benefits for communities.
The consortium partnership wants to support a variety of organisations to provide options best suited to the needs of local communities. The range of projects that may be supported should fall under one or more of the following project themes:
Local food initiatives, waste minimisation, re-use and recycling, energy efficiency, biodiversity, consumption and lifestyles, sustainable transport, environmental education and community enterprise.
For further information and an application pack contact the New Opportunities Fund on: 0845 0000 121 or visit www.rsnc.org.
www.rsnc.org.