A new cross-sector coalition has launched what is set to become London’s largest connected nature corridor: a 14-mile living network stretching from the Lea Valley Regional Park to the Thames, running through some of the city’s most nature-deprived communities.
Wild Cities, developed by Initiative Earth and backed by The National Lottery, Bacon Foundation, Garfield Weston Foundation, Six Senses London, and Sky Garden by H Properties, is a coalition of ecologists, football clubs, community growers, transport authorities, cultural institutions, and residents working to reconnect fragmented green spaces across Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney, and Haringey. By creating connected pathways for pollinators and wildlife to move through the city, the coalition is building urban infrastructure that cools streets, supports food systems, and restores biodiversity to neighbourhoods long deprived of it.
The corridor follows the stepping-stone connectivity model developed by Buglife’s B-Lines programme, which shows that habitat patches no more than 300 metres apart can restore meaningful ecological function at a landscape scale. In East London, this makes each community garden, rooftop, canal bank, football ground, and backyard street an opportunity to create an interconnected hub of urban wildlife.
Wild Cities is a direct delivery vehicle for the Mayor of London’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy, published March 2026, which identifies green corridors and pollinator support as explicit biodiversity priorities for the capital. Green corridors deliver local cooling of up to 7°C, and London has a clear need to increase its resilience to warming temperatures as the capital sits 1 to 1.5°C hotter than the surrounding south-east England during heatwaves.
The project’s 20+ coalition partners, currently under development, include organisations across ecology, sport, culture, civic life and hospitality, ranging from Local councils, Six Senses London, Sky Garden, Buglife, ecoACTIVE, GrowN22 C.I.C., Capital Growth, SUGi, The Orchard Project, and Lee Valley Regional Authority.
“We started Wild Cities because urban nature must be restored for people, for wildlife, and for the future. A coalition model lets us work at the scale the challenge demands, celebrating communities and helping people and ecosystems become more connected and resilient.” – Wanessa Rudmer, Executive Director, Initiative Earth
“The science behind B-Lines is clear. Connected habitat is not a luxury, it is the baseline condition for nature’s recovery. More than two-thirds of Britain’s pollinators are in decline, and loss of connectivity is one of the biggest reasons why. Wild Cities puts that evidence into practice in one of the country’s most nature-deprived areas, showing that when communities, institutions and ecologists commit to the same vision, a corridor of life can grow where there was once only concrete, creating an insect superhighway.” Paul Hetherington, Buglife
On Saturday 25 April, Londoners are invited to join Wild Cities as it marks its public launch with the Pollinator Pilgrimage – a one-day walk from Walthamstow Wetlands to Victoria Park along the River Lea, tracing the route of the future 14-mile nature corridor through East London. Participants will sow seeds, plant seed offerings, visit community growing projects already active along the route, and share food, song and reflection as a collective act of urban regeneration – with a shared lunch provided by Fooditude.
The Pollinator Pilgrimage takes place on Saturday 25 April, 10am to 5pm, starting at Walthamstow Wetlands. Tickets from £25, with free places available for those who need them. Sign up at: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/earthed1/2096799