Climate Positive News - July 2026

This month's collection of climate positive news stories highlight efforts to reconnect two landscapes that are home to rare habitats and wildlife in Carmarthenshire, the bird that has returned to Derbyshire after more than 600 years and a national project that brings people seeking asylum and local residents together through environmental volunteering.

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1. The walking group helping people feel welcome in the outdoors

Leanne Wharton founded Soul Trail Wellbeing during the coronavirus pandemic after reconnecting with walking in nature helped her through a difficult period with her mental health.

The organisation now runs monthly self‑referred hikes, creative workshops and nature‑based programmes for the NHS, with a focus on mental health and inclusion.

"Our mission is to ensure that, or at least to aim for everybody to feel they belong in nature because not everybody does," Leanne said.

Find out more on the BBC website.

2. Circus combines tradition with climate message

Young people in Gloucestershire have been given the opportunity to combine traditional circus skills with voicing their concerns about the environment. The Great Big Climate Circus is a four-year project, funded by a National Lottery grant, which will visit 12 locations across Gloucestershire.

Devised by Dursley-based World Jungle, the circus is a mix of music, performance, visual arts and hands-on activities, co-created by more than 700 young people. Director Ben Ward said the aim was to make the issues surrounding climate change accessible, fun and relevant to everyday life.

Find out more on the BBC website.

3. RSPB buys 96-hectare landscape to reconnect habitats

By the banks of the River Tywi in Carmarthenshire, the RSPB has bought a 96-hectare upland area of Gallt-y-bere in the hope of reconnecting two landscapes that are home to rare habitats and wildlife.

The area falls between two separated parts of the bird conservation charity's Gwenffrwd-Dinas nature reserve in the Elenydd. The move will allow conservationists to reconnect the fragmented landscape for the first time in 60 years, allowing wildlife to move across the different areas and build stronger, more diverse and sustainable ecosystems.

Find out more on the BBC website. 

4. Nature charities and asylum seekers working together in UK countryside

Action Asylum is a national project that brings people seeking asylum and local residents together through environmental volunteering. 

Recently, a group of dozens of asylum seekers, refugees and environmental volunteers worked together in Tŷ Mawr country park in north Wales to clear invasive Himalayan balsam from the riverbanks.

The charity has secured a £1.62m funding boost from the National Lottery’s climate action fund, and over the next three years, it will work with more than 3,000 volunteers and run 120 large-scale climate action events across England and Wales.

Find out more on The Guardian website. 

5. Breeding storks return to Derbyshire after 600 years

White storks have returned to Derbyshire more than 600 years after they disappeared from the region. Three of the birds have been reintroduced to a new enclosure at Willington Wetlands. 

Derbyshire Wildlife Trust said the enclosure had been designed to be predator-proof and adaptable for future species recovery projects and that having a nesting pair at the nature reserve would create a "social magnet" to encourage passing storks to "stop, settle, and breed".

Find out more on the BBC website. 

6. Life-changing accessibility trails open up access to nature

A woman who has been using accessible trails for the last three years said she has had her "life changed" by the "freedom to get in amongst nature and discover things that I forgot existed".

Sue Just, speaking at the launch of a new trail in Silverdale, Lancashire, said "it was like walking into a new world, the peacefulness, tranquility, mind-blowing."

The new six mile (9.7km) route connects three nature reserves and includes free hire of three all-terrain mobility scooters, called trampers, from RSPB Leighton Moss.

Find out more on the BBC website. 

7. More than 80,000 trees planted to expand woodland

Heartwood Community Forest has planted more than 80,000 trees during the second season of an initiative to expand woodland across Derbyshire. The trees were planted across 60 hectares at 47 sites, stretching from Dronfield to Draycott.

The sites range from schools, farms and heritage sites across eastern, north-eastern and southern Derbyshire and Derby. The Derbyshire County Council-led project, funded by the government, rooted more than 47,000 trees last year, and planning is under way for the third planting season in October.

Find out more on the BBC website.

By Eveline Vouillemin ©