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Butterflies, bats and birds among rare species set to benefit from new funding announced  

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  • 63 projects (including Froglife’s London Blue Chain project) awarded share of £14.5 million to support species recovery across England  
  • Species, such as rare mosses, Duke of Burgundy Butterflies and Greater Horseshoe Bat set to benefit from efforts to improve habitats
  • Work will contribute to government commitment to reduce species at risk of extinction

Some of England’s most rare and threatened species – from the Large Marsh Grasshopper, native White-Clawed Crayfish to Lapwings and Water Voles – are to be supercharged on the road to recovery thanks to a multi-million-pound grant scheme.  
 
63 projects across the country have been awarded a share of £14.5 million by Natural England to help recover 150 species nationwide.

The Species Recovery Programme Grant Scheme supports targeted action to recover our most endangered species. The funding will support efforts to fine tune habitat conditions for our rarest species, and actions such as propagation, captive rearing, translocations, research and solution-trialling to find the best approaches to enable endangered wildlife to survive and thrive.

England’s wildlife is facing extreme pressures – habitat fragmentation, climate change and invasive species have created huge declines, with average species abundance falling by 52%. Numbers of the Duke of Burgundy Butterfly, for example, have declined by some 50% in the last 20 years.

Some of the projects to benefit from the funding include:

  • Chalk stream restoration. The WET Hogsmill project led by the South East Rivers Trust, will improve a rare chalk stream in Southwest London, supporting species such as Brown Trout, Sea Trout, Eels and Water Voles returning to the river.
  • The Wiltshire Chalk Partnership Chalk Species Revival – to support the recovery of the Wart-biter Bush Cricket, Marsh Fritillary, the Large Blue, the Adonis Blue and the Duke of Burgundy butterflies which are in serious sustained decline. Led by the National Trust in collaboration with Natural England, the RSPB, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust and the Pewsey Downs Farmer Group, the project will create a mosaic of habitat connecting butterfly populations across the landscape. 
  • Reintroducing the Large Marsh Grasshopper in East Anglia – The Citizen Zoo Hop of Hope project to reintroduce the Large Marsh Grasshopper to East Anglia. Last seen in the area in 1968, this species has suffered decline due to degradation of the bog and fen habitat. The project will support efforts to re-establish a population in this area, building on innovative work to release grasshoppers from pre-incubated eggs.
  • Saving North Yorkshire’s Native Crayfish — Claws for Thought delivered by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, this project will work with members of the North Yorkshire Crayfish Forum to create a resilient population of the native White-clawed Crayfish. The project will establish a crayfish rearing facility, and interventions, such as introducing woody debris and reducing sediment, will provide new breeding sites and food sources supporting sustainable populations of native Crayfish. 
  • Horseshoes Heading East – This partnership project, led by the Vincent Wildlife Trust, will create a viable population of Greater Horseshoe Bats in south-east England through a combination of roost creation and habitat enhancement. Improving connectivity across the landscape and linking maternity sites will improve the breeding success of this rare and iconic species. The project will also support other rare bat species such as the Greater Mouse-eared Bat and the Grey Long-Eared Bat.  

Tony Juniper, Chair of Natural England, said:  

“Nature is in drastic decline all around us, with England now one of the most nature depleted countries in Earth. Many once common animals and plants are much reduced with some 15 percent of species at risk of becoming extinct here.

“It’s a dire situation, but can still be turned around. We know this because we’ve seen the population of the once endangered Bittern rise dramatically, the recovery of the Fen Raft Spider and Water Voles successfully reintroduced to areas from where they had previously been lost. The partnership projects we are highlighting today demonstrate the power of collaborative action to reverse species decline and we look forward to seeing positive practical progress as a result of the investments being made”.

Bella Davies, Chief Executive of the South East Rivers Trust, said:  

“We are thrilled to have been successful in our application to Natural England’s Species Recovery Grant to support the recovery of water voles, eel and native wild trout which have become near extinct on the Hogsmill river in South West London.

“The Hogsmill is a rare urban chalk stream meaning that it’s not only a very rare and special habitat for wildlife, with only 220 chalk streams worldwide, but an important resource for many people too. Our project will restore river habitat and create backwaters where fish can take refuge from pollution, create wetlands to improve water quality which will help reintroduce water voles which were once prevalent on the river. We are excited to see this much needed work begin on the ground to bring water vole, eel and trout back to the Hogsmill”.

The money has been awarded following a competitive application round, and will be used by environmental charities, wildlife organisations, local authorities and charities in projects across the country.

The projects will help deliver the Nature Recovery Network, creating, improving and connecting more wildlife-rich areas benefitting people and helping species to thrive.

The projects will also provide new opportunities for people to experience the wellbeing benefits of accessing the natural world, and help build resilience to climate change, while sustaining the vital ecosystems that provide us with healthy soil, clean air and water.

Improving strongholds for wildlife and investing in long-term species recovery will help achieve the government’s pledge to reduce the species extinction by 2042 compared to 2022 levels, restore more than 500,000 hectares of wildlife habitat, and increase species abundance as set out in the Environmental Improvement Plan.  

Government plans to remove nutrient neutrality from new developments.

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Urban runoff and sewage from new housing development contributes to the leaking of nitrates and phosphorus into rivers, lakes, streams and seas. An excess of these nutrients causes “eutrophication”—algal blooms which starve a river of light and oxygen, killing wildlife.

Under current legislation, planning authorities have been required to closely consider the potential impacts of development on nutrient pollution levels in sensitive freshwater habitats but Government has tabled an amendment to the Habitats Regulations to remove this requirement. The new section

  • instructs planning authorities to assume no increase in pollution
  • prevents planning authorities from requesting an assessment to investigate pollution impacts further or concluding potential impacts will be adverse
  • instructs authorities to ignore any evidence of potential adverse impacts.

The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), has been very clear as to the impact these changes will have upon environmental protection. The amendment would: ‘‘Permit certain environmentally damaging activity to proceed without ‘appropriate assessment’ of certain nutrient impacts, thus risking substantial harm to protected wildlife sites. Planning authorities would also be required to disregard negative findings concerning such nutrient pollution in any appropriate assessments, and disregard representations from Natural England or others. The proposed amendments would therefore remove legal controls on the addition of nutrient loads to sites that already suffer from these impacts. ….’’

Wildlife and Countryside Link (WCL), a collaborative network of conservation organisations, including Froglife, argues strongly that nutrient neutrality should be maintained and is calling for peers to reject the Government’s damaging proposals. 

Further Reading

The case for nutrient negativity

Levelling Up Bill Briefing Nutrient pollution

Wildlife and Countryside Link report finds Government progress on 30 x30 targets has stalled.

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Wildlife and Countryside Link (WCL), a collaborative group of conservation charities with over 80 members including Froglife has published a report reviewing the Governments 30×30 targets for conservation and biodiversity. The report (you can read it in full here) highlights that many protected sites continue to exist in a poor state and that the targets are increasingly unlikely to be achieved.

In 2020, the Government committed to protect at least 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030 (its 30×30 target). Three years on and with just six years to 2030, nature campaigners have assessed the progress made to date and this report identifies that action is falling far short of ambition, with the amount of land and sea protected for nature in 2023 plateauing. Just 3.11% of land (a small fall of 0.11% from 2022) and 8% of English seas are well protected for nature, leaving a huge gap to close to reach 30% by 2030.

Achieving 30×30 isn’t possible without all our protected landscapes playing a central role. The government need to take urgent action and use the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill to give National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty the powers and purposes they need to bring themselves back to full health.

Dr Richard Benwell, CEO of WCL, said: “We are one year closer to 2030 and nature’s prognosis continues to look bleak. Progress toward 30×30 has stalled and the prospect of losing nature becomes increasingly likely in the face of a government which has taken a ‘hands off’ approach to environmental recovery. We need to see the leadership and action the UK Government preached internationally in Montreal last year practiced at home. 30×30 can still be achieved, but Government needs to start listening to its own advice and provide National Parks, AONBs and protected sites with the tools they need to actually allows them to actually deliver for nature.” 

WCL continues to campaign for 5 key priorities for conservation, health and wellbeing which it highlighted in its Nature 2030 Report and calls again for political parties to sign up to the targets in the report as part of their manifestos for the next election.

 

Hissing Heathlands

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AI maps a way back for endangered reptiles!

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to map the location of lost heathlands could create opportunities for habitat restoration to provide new habitats for threatened heathland reptiles and birds.  Reptiles such as the sand lizard, adder, slowworm, grass snake and common lizard and the rare smooth snake, share our heathlands with amphibians such as the natterjack toad and threatened heathland birds including the nightjar and Dartford warbler.

A recent study led by Froglife, in collaboration with Thomson Environmental Consultants, and funded by Natural England’s Species Recovery Programme, has used AI to generate digital maps of historic heathlands in two English Counties.  The results were presented at the 22nd European Congress of Herpetology at the University of Wolverhampton by Dr Andrew Smart, Conservation & Science Manager at Froglife on 5th September as part of the Symposium on Rewilding and Reintroductions.

The Artificial Intelligence process involved ‘teaching’ a Geographical Information System (GIS) on a computer to recognise the symbols used to represent heathlands on old Ordnance Survey maps (produced between 1906 and 1939) to find and ‘map’ patches of heathland that have been lost in the last 80 – 100 years.  Once the AI had learnt the various examples of heathland symbols, it carried out a search of the maps of Surrey and identified all the heathlands that were recorded on the old maps. Comparing the search by the AI system with a manual search found that the ‘taught GIS’ found extra heathlands that were small or fragmented and were missed by the manual mapping of the county’s heathlands.

The areas of heathland from the old maps were compared with Natural England’s current priority habitat mapping to find areas that had been lost and new areas that were not previously heathland habitat (5 km2).

The combined area of heathland habitat lost in these two counties was estimated at 391 km2 using this method, slightly more than the area of the Isle of Wight, and equates to 68% of the habitat identified on the old maps.  This loss has an additional impact because it is over many small sites and has fragmented remaining heathland areas and left them isolated, breaking ‘wildlife corridors’ for heathland species to move along. Smaller areas are more likely to lose threatened species and without the links between habitats, recolonisation can’t take place, particularly for small terrestrial species like reptiles and amphibians.

The comparison with existing heathland areas has enabled the project team to identify examples of ‘missing heathland’ lost over the last 80 years which have not been built upon and therefore could be part of future heathland restoration or rewilding programmes. The location of these sites, between remaining heathland habitats, would create ‘stepping stones’ for heathland species and re-establish corridors.  In response to the UK Biodiversity crisis Defra consulted on a plan to ‘create or restore 5000 km2 of wildlife rich habitat outside protected sites by 2042’ and this AI system is giving us the tool to identify the location of priority heathland sites for rewilding in the hope they become ‘hissing’ instead of ‘missing’.

Tim Bernhard, Senior Specialist of Amphibians and Reptiles at Natural England said:

‘Natural England are delighted to have funded this important project. The identification of areas of lost and fragmented heathland habitat indicates areas where resources can be focused to restore and connect habitats on a landscape scale. We hope that the project can be expanded further to include other counties.’

A Voice for Nature

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Scottish Environment LINK are celebrating ten years of the Nature Champions initiative with an exhibition at the Scottish Parliament!

The Nature Champions initiative exists to encourage MSPs to stand up for Scotland’s threatened and iconic species and habitats, through support from LINK member organisations. Many Nature Champions become a voice for their chosen species or habitat in the Scottish Parliament, and highlight them in debates, or through Parliamentary motions and questions.

Since its launch in 2013, the initiative has gone from strength to strength, with over 173 MSPs over the past decade becoming Nature Champions and asking hundreds of Parliamentary questions and motions in support of their species or habitats.

‘A Voice for Nature’ is an interactive exhibition highlighting some of the great work that has been achieved in these 10 years and will be on display outside the Scottish Parliament from the 28 August – 22 September.

Images and facts about Scottish species and habitats will be displayed alongside Nature Champions case studies and QR codes within the displays will link to short audio descriptions, using the voices of MSP Nature Champions to share information about species and habitats – thereby being a ‘voice for nature’ in the exhibition itself.

Find out more info HERE.

Nature charities call on political leaders to increase ambition on environment.

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You can read the open letter here.

A coalition of leading nature conservation and environmental charities has called on Scotland’s political leaders to work together with increased ambition in the face of growing crises of climate and nature.

The call, directed at the leaders of all five political parties, was made in an open letter ahead of an environmental roundtable with the First Minister.

The charities have warned the party leaders against rolling back on their existing commitments or attempting to exploit the environmental crises for short-term electoral purposes.

The intervention comes following a summer extreme weather globally, heightening concerns over the immediate impact of the environmental crises.

The open letter warns that “The impacts of climate change and nature loss are increasingly visible in our lives” and says that “we are deeply concerned that our political leaders are not responding to the intertwined nature and climate crises with the urgency required”.

The charities have highlighted the need for ambitious legal targets for nature restoration and a well-resourced Biodiversity Strategy as crucial in reversing nature loss. Reforms to agriculture and forestry funding, marine protection, and reducing resource use are also key areas where progress must be made in this parliamentary term.

The letter states: “The status quo is not sustainable. Yet we have seen key environmental commitments shelved or delayed, and increasing signals that differing views on environmental policy will be exploited for electoral purposes or treated as disposable.

“All parties committed to strengthening environmental protection and restoration at the last Scottish election. Scotland – as a wealthy country, as an early industrialiser and as one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world – has a moral obligation to show leadership.

“There are opportunities in this parliament to deliver meaningful progress. We call on you all to reaffirm your commitment to the health of our planet – our life support system – by working together to rapidly support measures to reduce emissions in line with statutory targets agreed by this parliament, and halt and reverse nature loss.”

The signatories to the letter have a combined supporter base of more than 500,000.

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