Marking a Milestone: Over 20,500 Hectares Mapped for Nature

Weald to Waves has passed the remarkable milestone of mapping and registering over 20,500 hectares of land as part of the corridor. This surpasses our original public target of 20,000 and brings us closer to becoming one of the most significant landscape projects in the UK.

20,500 hectares is 50,658.55 acres, roughly equivalent to 11,650 football pitches.

Landholdings registered range from family farms, estates and nature reserves to council-run greenspaces, community woodlands, orchards, allotments and gardens. This network is a testament to the spirit of collaboration among Sussex land managers and communities - many of whom have no history of working together. Despite their diversity, those registering land have found common ground in recognising the value of nature for our economy, health and sustainability.

In joining the corridor, they are helping to charter a new pathway for ecosystem recovery, improving water quality, increasing natural flood management, capturing carbon, rebuilding soils, and reversing biodiversity decline. As a heavily farmed and human-influenced region, this is being integrated into productive land management and accessible, active community spaces.

What does it mean to register land in the corridor?

However, this achievement is just one part of the story. Nature cannot exist in fragments and the ambition of the corridor is not just for bigger and better areas for nature, but also to ensure they are joined up. Our focus for the year ahead is on increasing and evidencing connectivity between registered land. While working with our brilliant conservation partners and farm advisors to bring nature back to the registered landholdings, we will also be funding new research into connectivity modelling.

This is a way of using maps and data to figure out the best ways to connect natural areas so that wildlife can move freely and thrive. It helps identify gaps in habitats where animals or plants might struggle to migrate, find food, or reproduce, and guides efforts to restore or protect these key areas. By looking at the landscape and how species use it, connectivity modelling helps us create safe pathways for wildlife to travel between forests, rivers and grassland. This ensures animals and plants can adapt to changes in their environment, like climate change, while also balancing conservation with human activities like farming or development. We will be working with the consultant to identify the farms, estates, gardens and greenspaces that are vital stepping stones to increasing connectivity.

Now we’ve reached 20,000 hectares, we need a new ambition for land registrations! Our extended community engagement area, called the Radiant Zone, creates a green buffer either side of the Core Corridor route. This extended area enables us to connect with more farms and landholdings and engage over 2.5 million people who live within the radiant zone. Together, the Core and the Radiant Zone make up 77,000 hectares of land, which would be a seismic collaboration.

Why Connectivity Matters

Connected landscapes are vital for wildlife to thrive. Many species, such as hedgehogs, dormice, and amphibians like great crested newts, depend on uninterrupted habitats to move, forage, and breed. Other species, such as otter and pine martin, as well as birds of prey, require expansive, connected territories for survival and migration. Fragmentation caused by roads, housing, and infrastructure disrupts these movements, isolating populations and weakening genetic diversity.

Beyond physical barriers, noise and light pollution also pose significant challenges. Nocturnal species like bats and owls are particularly affected by artificial light, while traffic noise disrupts birds’ ability to communicate and find mates. These pressures underline the importance of creating seamless corridors where wildlife can thrive despite human activity.