This year the Wildlife Trust's Churchyard Conservation Award scheme marks 40 years, having been set up originally in Northamptonshire by botanist and conservationist Franklyn Perring, and the scheme is now thriving in Cambridgeshire and the surrounding areas. 
This week we are celebrating Love your Burial Ground and Churches Count on Nature week, so now is the perfect time to get started!
However big or small, urban or rural your churchyard is it will have value for local wildlife.
Gather a group: what skills do you have, what other groups could you involve? Youth groups, schools, gardening clubs?
Talk to your church: explain your ideas, gain their support, find out who currently manages your churchyard, how and why?
Look around: carry out a wildlife survey, what wildlife already uses your churchyard, what else could you attract?
Start small: focus on a small area first, only take on as much as you can manage.
Make a plan: what can you do, when and why? – present it to your church.
Diana Cook is the lead volunteer for the Cambridgeshire scheme. For more information or to arrange for an adviser to meet up with you, answer your questions and give advice, please email Diana.