NatureScot puts up £500 for our Pollinator Friendly Award

Our Beautiful Scotland and It's Your Neighbourhood groups are celebrating everything 'Climate and Nature' this year, which is why we're absolutely delighted to announce that NatureScot has increased the prize money for our annual It's Your Neighbourhood Pollinator Friendly Award!

NatureScot, Scotland’s nature agency, works to improve our natural environment and inspire everyone to care more about it. They lead on developing the Pollinator Strategy for Scotland, and work with many partners, including Keep Scotland Beautiful, to encourage groups and individuals to make their space as pollinator friendly as possible. 

We are delighted that for a fourth year running we will be working with NatureScot to celebrate pollinator-friendly approaches taken across Scotland by volunteer communities in our It’s Your Neighbourhood initiative. Instead of just one prize of £250, NatureScot has decided to award a first prize of £250, a second prize of £150 and a third prize of £100 - after being overwhelmingly impressed by the quality and breadth of entries over the last three years.

The first award, presented in 2018, went to Inverclydebuzz and was followed in 2019 by a shared award between the Organic Growers of Fairlie in North Ayrshire and Growing Matters in East Lothian. Last year Bonnie Dundee scooped the £250 first prize. With a growing number of entries, there is a real enthusiasm for this theme and we anticipate varied and interesting entries again. There is plenty of time to get your pollinator friendly practices in place, and, if you need inspiration, visit the NatureScot Scottish Pollinators blog for ideas and updates on the previous years’ competitions.

Scotland’s pollinators are a familiar sight in gardens and parks, but they face many pressures and the valuable work of gardeners and communities in providing habitat and food for our vital pollinators has never been more important. This award acknowledges and encourages actions taken in 2021 which specifically help halt and reverse the decline in our pollinator numbers.

It's Your Neighbourhood groups can download the self-nomination form from the ‘Entrant Support’ section on this page.