Felixstowe's Community Nature Reserve has been awarded a Certificate of Gratitude and Recognition by the High Sheriff of Suffolk, Gulshanbir Kaur Kayembe, in recognition of the project's outstanding service to the community.

The certificate, dated 11th March 2026, was presented on behalf of the County of Suffolk "in appreciation of the hard work, dedication and outstanding service that enhances the life of the community." It is signed by Gulshanbir Kaur Kayembe, Suffolk High Sheriff 2025 to 2026.

The award is a significant milestone for a project that began not with funding or official backing, but with one man's frustration at a General Election debate.

How the project began

The idea for Felixstowe's Community Nature Reserve was conceived by Dr Adrian Cooper in 2015. Watching the General Election debates that year, he was struck by the fact that not a single politician mentioned the catastrophic decline in bee and other wildlife populations. Convinced that local grassroots action was needed, he spent the months following the election listening to people from local government and the wider Felixstowe community, gathering a small team of volunteers, and working out what might realistically be achieved.

What emerged was a deceptively simple concept: rather than trying to acquire a single plot of land — a process that would be slow, expensive, and complicated — Dr Cooper redefined what a nature reserve could be. He asked local gardeners and allotment owners to allocate just three square yards of their land for wildlife-friendly plants, ponds, and insect lodges. By recruiting 1,666 participants, the combined total would reach 5,000 square yards — the size of a football pitch — creating a distributed community nature reserve spread across hundreds of private gardens.

Building the reserve, plot by plot

By the end of October 2015, Dr Cooper and his partner Dawn Holden launched a Facebook page advising local people on wildlife-friendly plants three times a week. The recommended list included rowan, barberry, firethorn, foxgloves, thyme, sunflowers, lavender, honeysuckle, buddleia, evening primrose, and purple loosestrife — something, as Dr Cooper put it, for everyone. For those without internet access, he wrote articles for local magazines, gave an interview to the local community TV station, and appeared on BBC Radio Suffolk. Volunteers printed information posters that appeared on notice boards across Felixstowe.

By Christmas 2015, 92 local people had confirmed they had bought and planted at least one of the recommended plants. By October 2016, that number had grown to 591.

The project attracted national attention when BBC presenter Chris Packham discovered it online and tweeted about it to his 145,000 Twitter followers, generating a wave of enquiries from across the UK. Communities in Cosby and Burbage in Leicestershire were inspired to start their own community nature reserves using the Felixstowe model.

Partnerships and wider impact

The project has developed working relationships with Suffolk Wildlife Trust's Community Projects Officer, supporting grassroots conservation initiatives including swift walks and hedgehog awareness campaigns in the Felixstowe area. In January 2016, the reserve took part in a Green Forum organised by the East Suffolk Greenprint Forum, with representatives from Suffolk County Council, Suffolk Coastal District Council, and Felixstowe Town Council — all of whom expressed strong enthusiasm for the project's aims and results.

The initiative is deliberately inclusive. Even window box owners are encouraged to participate, growing herbs, crocuses, and snowdrops. As Dr Cooper has said: "No one is excluded."

Recognition from the High Sheriff

The Certificate of Gratitude and Recognition from the High Sheriff of Suffolk acknowledges what the project has quietly achieved over more than a decade: a patchwork of small green spaces, tended by hundreds of Felixstowe residents, collectively forming one of the most unusual nature reserves in the country.

For Dr Cooper, the award reflects the power of community action. "The most important lesson which we can offer other groups who may wish to start their own community nature reserve," he has written, "is to listen to as many local people as possible. Be patient. Don't rush."

Anyone wishing to get involved in Felixstowe's Community Nature Reserve can find the project on Facebook by searching Felixstowe Community Nature Reserve.