The Lifelines Project

The Lifelines Project is a community initiative designed to strengthen the health and resilience of wildlife and soils in and around the beautiful Marshwood Vale and Char Valley. 

We are concerned with biodiversity as a whole – wildflowers, trees, hedgerows, mammals, amphibians, birds, insects of all sorts. But we take as our starting point the insects. First because they are critically important and in serious trouble and second because they are a crucial part of so many food chains and natural cycles. See more about why we choose to start with insects.  

Our aim is to stop and reverse the decline of insects by encouraging people in and around the Marshwood Vale and Char Valley to manage their land – whether it’s a small garden, a farm or a large estate – in ways that help insects and, with them, the wildlife that feeds on them and the flowering plants and trees that depend on them.

At the heart of the project is an interactive map which highlights in green the areas of land, or Lifelines, that are helping insects and other wildlife move safely around the landscape. We are inviting people to join the scheme by having their garden, field or farm (or just part of it, such as woods, field-margins or hedges - see Lifelines-and-farming) included in the Lifelines.  Joining is easy, residents simply need to agree not to use pesticides (insecticides, herbicides* or fungicides) on the parts of their land they wish to include on the Lifelines map and send us their land parcel ID number given on the map - see how to use the map. By linking up these Lifelines and visualising them on the map, we hope to encourage the creation of a rich network of wildlife corridors that will strengthen the resilience of our precious biodiversity.

Please contact us if you want more information about the project. No names or addresses are accessible on the map.

* Except for occasional spot-treatment using an approved herbicide for the removal of harmful invasive and non-native plants as recommended by DEFRA