David Bellamy Wildlife Challanges

David Bellamy was an English botanist, television presenter, author and environmental campaigner. He set up the David Bellamy Conservation Award Scheme in 1996, after visiting a number of holiday parks and encouraging them to take an active part in protecting the environment. The scheme grew to become one of the longest running green tourism awards in the UK and inspired many similar award schemes abroad. In recent years, the scheme, which previously awarded parks either bronze, silver or gold awards, has been replaced with the David Bellamy Blooming Marvellous Pledge For Nature, which all of our parks are pleased to have joined.

Parks joining the pledge must commit themselves to:

• improving their existing habitats for wildlife
• creating new wildlife habitats and features where possible
• managing their green space in as environmentally friendly a way as possible
• involving their guests and staff in wildlife conservation
• engaging with local conservation bodies and projects

Each year, parks must take on at least one project designed to help nature in some way. In 2022, the challenges available are:

• Everyone Active – create environmental activities for everyone to enjoy
• Home Sweet Home – set up bird boxes and other artificial wildlife homes
• Horti-heroes – manage your greenspace in a way that reduces environmental impact
• Pollinator Patch – create a part of their park where bees, butterflies and other insects can get food
• Special Species – choose an at-risk species and give it a helping hand
• Super Signage – provide environmental information and interpretation to help everyone enjoy the wildlife on your park
• Tree-mendous – plant native trees and make their woodlands work for wildlife
• Wonderful Wetlands – boost the wildlife value of their ponds and other fresh-water habitats

We’re pleased to announce that Highlands End has recently completed three of these challenges:

• Home Sweet Home – We gave our bug hotel a deluxe upgrade and added a hedgehog house, as well as putting up additional bird boxes around the park
• Tree-mendous – This winter we planted nearly 2,900 trees and shrubs which will grow to provide shade for visitors as well as valuable habitats for wildlife
• Wonderful Wetlands – We have improved our wildlife lake with additional seating, an extra path to walk around and more wetland areas

The next challenge for Highlands is the Pollinator Patch Challenge which the team are already getting stuck into!

Previous David Bellamy Awards

We’re pleased that all of our parks achieved the Gold Conservation Award for a number of years, as well as the Honey Bee Friendly Award, and Awards for our work in Hedgerows, Woodlands and Wildflowers.