Leading naturalist David Bellamy has made a personal appeal to businesses and residents in Wandle Valley to support a project to rejuvenate the area, its river and wildlife.

In a letter to the Guardian, Mr Bellamy calls on businesses and industry to back The Wandle Valley Mapping Project. The project has already begun a series of initiatives in the area with the help of organisations like Thames Water Plc, the Environment Agency and several businesses, including McDonalds, Savacentre and Tramtrack Croydon.

The botanist has a special interest in the project because as a child growing up in the Wandle Valley he used to swim and fish in the river and it was there he began to develop his love of nature and wildlife.

He asks businesses to do their bit and support the future health of their river and the children who live on its catchment.

He and local television historian Adam Hart-Davies recently attended the launch of the project, along with the manager and founder of the project, Alan Suttie. One of the first schemes to be set up was to begin breeding Brown Trout in special aquariums in schools in Croydon, Wandsworth, Merton and Sutton with the help of the Jet Set Club, which the ecologist calls a new and extremely significant childrens environmental club and an integral part of this unique south London project.

Mr Bellamy goes on to say: As with anything of real worth, little of substance is ever achieved without genuine support and who better to answer this particular call than those who will benefit from these efforts the community within the Wandle Valley.

He continues: Many companies, through their mere existence, inevitably, though often unintentionally, deplete their local ecology.

In his letter he also personally thanks Steve Whiteside and the South Wandle Regeneration Project and Alastair Maltby of environmental group Thames 21 for helping get the project off the ground.

To find out more about the project contact Alan Suttie at The Wandle Valley Mapping Project, 27 Spring Grove, Mitcham, Surrey, CR4 2NN or telephone 020 8640 5036.