00:00Called Wild Cities, the project brings together a coalition of ecologists, football clubs, community growers, transport authorities, cultural institutions and
00:10residents who will work together on conservation efforts along the 14-mile stretch between the Lee Valley Regional Park towards
00:19the Thames, covering Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Haringey and Newham.
00:24This means community gardens, rooftops, canal banks, sports fields and backyard streets could be part of building the interconnected hub
00:35of urban wildlife, according to organisers.
00:38The Green Group said the corridor follows the Stepping Stone connectivity model developed by Bugs Life, which shows that Habitat's
00:47patches, no more than 300 metres apart, can restore ecosystems at a landscape scale.
00:54Vanessa Rudmir, its executive director, said they started the Wild Cities project because urban nature must be restored for people,
01:03for wildlife and for the future.
01:05The project is supporting the delivery of the Mayor of London's local nature recovery strategy, which was published last month
01:13and identified green corridors and pollinator supports as biodiversity priorities for the capital.
01:20It comes after research showed that London sits at 1 Celsius to 1.5 Celsius hotter than the surrounding areas
01:27of south-east England during heatwaves.
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