Image: Ben Nevis secured a first-round pass

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has named the 13 projects which are set to share a total of £20m worth of funding made available through its Landscape Partnership (LP) programme.

The investment will help conserve some of the UK's most diverse and locally distinctive landscapes by supporting schemes that provide long-term social, economic and environmental benefits for rural areas.

HLF's LP programme - which has been running for eight years - is the most significant grant scheme available for landscape-scale projects and has invested a total of £132m in more than 80 different areas.

The initiative aims to help forge new partnerships between public and community bodies, while ensuring people are better equipped to tackle the needs of their local landscapes in a co-ordinated and practical way.

The 13 landscapes receiving HLF support today include Cambridgeshire's Ouse Washes; the UK's highest mountain, Ben Nevis; Dartmoor National Park; the floodplain of the Tame Valley; and the Dearne Valley in the Pennine foothills.

Environment secretary Caroline Spelman said: "These 13 excellent projects will complement conservation work already taking place in our Nature Improvement Areas, restoring wildlife habitats and safeguarding the natural environment for generations to come."

For the full list of projects that have secured first-round passes, click here.

Image: Ian Ratcliffe/shutterstock.com