Restoring and enhancing biodiversity in our local environment.
Rooting for Wildlife is a community grant scheme supporting partnership projects located within Affinity Water’s supply area that work towards increasing and protecting biodiversity.
A Biodiversity Emergency was declared in 2019 and globally we are in our 6th mass extinction event. The State of Nature report confirmed a decline in biodiversity across the UK and dwindling numbers of key species (28% of species globally are threatened with extinction).
We're committed to protecting and enhancing the species and habitats on our sites and across the catchments in which we operate. As part of this commitment, Affinity Water is pleased to introduce this community grant scheme across our entire supply area for 2025.
The purpose of the scheme is to enable local organisations, community groups or individuals from the public, private, voluntary and education sectors to address the deteriorating biodiversity crisis prioritising riparian zones, areas within designated sites, and supporting key habitats and species of conservation concern. Multi-stakeholder applications are also encouraged as combining interests, resources and capabilities will improve environmental outcomes.
In 2024, we piloted the scheme within the Lea Community and successfully awarded 15 different projects. Winning projects included pond creation and enhancement works, protected species re-introduction, river restoration, wetland rewilding, woodland management and school outreach and education. From the Rooting for Wildlife funding in 2024 so far, 4496 trees have been planted, 5 ponds restored, and 4 new ponds created, 1.38km stretch of river cleaned and restored, two woodlands have been managed, lots of pollinator-friendly plants planted, hundreds of children engaged with nature in their schools and kids clubs and countless members of the public involved with enhancing their local environment. We can’t wait to see how all our communities can contribute to the scheme for 2025.
Applications are now open and close 18th July 2025 at 23:59
Please make sure you have read and understood the accompanying information and documents below before applying.
View our terms and conditions.
What kind of projects do we support?
We are looking to support projects that are:
- Enhancing and protecting biodiversity, particularly priority species and habitats.
- In an environmentally designated site, river or riparian habitat and supporting key habitats and species of conservation concern. You can check if your project is within or close to a designated site, here: You will first need to locate your project site on the map and open the ‘Map layers’ in the left-hand side bar. Then select ‘Designations’ - ‘Land-based designations’, then ‘Statutory’, and select all the available layers to highlight on the map.
- Channelling the relevant Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS’s) and has the potential to link to wider environmental projects. You can search if your local LNRS has been published from your council’s website.
- Contributing towards achieving Water Framework Directive objectives. If your project is located on a waterbody, check the WFD status by clicking on the relevant catchment below to then find your waterbody. The Ecological status will be written beside the title of that water body (poor, moderate etc.)
- Thames
- Anglian
- South East
- Asking for volunteer support from the Affinity Water volunteer network.
- Looking to achieve long-term success, with methods to support the project’s evolving progress.
Examples of potential projects could be:
| River restoration |
Riparian habitat |
Other |
| Adding in debris (log/boulders) to create pools and riffles |
Habitat creation such as tree planting |
Priority habitat creation |
| Re-meander the river |
Fencing for riparian habitat to keep out livestock (or no-fence collars) |
Tree and hedgerow planting |
| Leaky dam creation |
Habitat management work parties (woodland/grassland management or riparian tree works) |
Species reintroductions |
| Creation of earth banks (material provision) |
Reconnecting river to floodplain |
Priority species specific measures such as perches for kingfishers, planting of black poplar |
| Adding gravel to raise river bed (material provision) |
Wetland habitat creation |
Assist with protective status |
| Dredging to remove sediment |
Pond creation |
Creation of SuDs such as wetlands |
| Litter clean ups (small/large scale, people/machinery) |
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What can I apply for?
The maximum amount of funding available per project is £5000. Please see the table below for suggestions of how much funding could be awarded for different types of projects. These amounts are just suggestions for guidance purposes, you may apply for more but please be aware that we may not be able to award complete funding if your application is successful.
| Project type |
Suggested resource |
| Creation of educational resources |
£1 – £1,500 |
| Training for licenses |
£200 – £2,500 |
Small equipment for works
e.g. gloves, waders, hand tools, coir matting, seed mix, mink rafts, litter pickers, tree planting, water quality monitoring
|
£2,000 – £2,500 |
Large specialist equipment
e.g. machinery hire/specialist driver, wetland/pond creation, dredging, bank creation, fencing, no-fence collars, reed planting, farm infrastructure improvements
|
£1,000 – £4,000 |
Volunteer days
We will endeavour to provide you with volunteers for your events, made up of Affinity Water staff, contractors, or partners.
Volunteering events must be on weekdays (Monday – Friday).
We require at least two weeks’ notice to advertise internally Final numbers depend on staff availability
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Minimum of 1 volunteer event will be attended if requested |
We will not be looking to fund projects that involve:
- Survey only projects
- Research projects
- The creation of apps
Contact us for any queries on communities@affinitywater.co.uk or click below to apply.