BREAKING NEWS
Water voles are among species to benefit from the scheme to assist habitats in England
By Lucy Vladev
BBC Files rural affairs correspondent
England’s fastest-declining mammal, the water vole, is among thousands of species living to benefit from a £25m scheme to restore “serious” habitats.
The authorities funding will be worn to assist greater than 3,300 hectares important for “iconic” flora and fauna, moreover together with butterflies, otters and dragonflies.
The authorities acknowledged the scheme would abet it meet its target to protect 30% of land for nature by 2030.
But conservation groups warned the fund is “handiest a portion” of what is wanted.
Image source, Ben Watkins
The marsh fritillary butterfly would possibly possibly well moreover be chanced on on the mid-Cornwall moors
The money, from the Nationwide Lottery Heritage Fund, will creep to 20 conservation projects at some level of England, together with the creation of 49 hectares of wetland spherical chalk river habitats in Hertfordshire and Middlesex.
The Hertfordshire and Middlesex Plant life and fauna Belief says the placement is dwelling to 10% of the sector’s globally rare chalk rivers, and that the cash will be worn to toughen species equivalent to water vole, otter, wild brown trout and European eel.
Chloe Edwards, the believe’s director of nature recovery, acknowledged: “All of us know that one in six species are threatened with extinction at some level of the UK. In Hertfordshire, that translates to 12 wetland species already extinct since 1970, and 76 critically declining.”
The species survival fund will moreover toughen a partnership of colleges, farmers, and landowners at some level of the mid-Cornwall moors situation to restore woodland and heathland, as well as species-rich acidic grasslands.
Meanwhile, the Groundwork Better Manchester charity will employ its award of £1.1m to manufacture nature corridors at some level of the Medlock Valley.
‘Legally binding targets’
The funding will toughen the restoration of grassland, riverbank, wetland and woodland habitats that can toughen species equivalent to willow tit, waxcaps and rare colossal-crested newts.
The Department for Atmosphere, Food and Rural Affairs says about 8.5% of land in England has been protected to date, but that decide is disputed by some conservation groups.
The Plant life and fauna Trusts acknowledged the authorities’s decide does no longer take into myth the staunch situation of the habitats, arguing that “decrease than 37% of them are in loyal situation for nature”.
They are saying which advance correct 3.11% of England’s land has been adequately protected and successfully managed.
They are calling for the authorities to “take motion to assist the placement of protected web pages in the event that they’re to be included in the 30% total”.
Richard Benwell, chief executive of Plant life and fauna and Nation-dispute Link, a coalition of charitable organisations, acknowledged: “The species survival fund is a crucial addition to public funding for nature recovery and this would possibly possibly well toughen some unbelievable flora and fauna.
“At £25m, even supposing, it’s handiest a portion of the billions wanted every year to stop nature’s decline by 2030.”
Atmosphere Minister Rebecca Pow acknowledged the funding would possibly possibly well be “a key plank in attaining our legally binding targets to end species loss” and would “allow native authorities, landowners, farmers, and our protected landscapes organisations to restore nature at scale”.
