‘We plant belonging’: how nature charities and asylum seekers work together in UK countryside
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- Action Asylum secured £1.62m from the National Lottery's climate action fund, enabling it to run 120 large-scale events and engage more than 3,000 volunteers across England and Wales over the next three years.
- The charity, delivered by the Task Force Trust since 2020, will expand into Sheffield, Newcastle and Bolton, joining existing projects in Leeds, Stockton-on-Tees and Portsmouth.
- Programme partners include the North Wales Wildlife Trust, the Dee Trust and Asylum Link Merseyside, which jointly run quarterly climate action events such as clearing invasive Himalayan balsam from the River Dee in north Wales.
- Lead ambassador Jane, a refugee, said the work carries a meaning beyond conservation: "We don't just plant trees. We plant belonging, and we plant purpose."
- Abdullah, a Sudanese asylum seeker from Darfur who volunteered at Tŷ Mawr country park, said planting onions and garlic by the Dee reminded him of farming with his mother in Sudan before war forced them to flee.
- Emma Leaper, Action Asylum's project director, said the funding allows the charity to scale a model it "knows works," while North Wales Wildlife Trust's Gemma Rose noted many participants spend most of their time confined to asylum hotels.
Why it matters: Action Asylum will reach more than 3,000 volunteers and 120 events across England and Wales in three years, mainstreaming a refugee-led environmental model into regions such as Sheffield, Newcastle and Bolton. For asylum seekers often confined to hotels, the programmes offer rare contact with green space and local residents at a moment when community cohesion is under strain.
