Good news for a Friday: plan to save species threatened with extinction awarded £4.6m from the National Lottery

As I reflected upon in yesterday’s blog, this week the UK Government has formally started a process that will redefine our place in the world.

Irrespective of our future relationship with the Europe Union, the UK has and will continue to have obligations to protect our most threatened species from extinction (such as Aichi target 12 under the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity). For us, the status of threatened species is a critical test of whether we are living in harmony with nature.  It it is why, throughout our history, we have invested an enormous amount of effort to recover species such as great crested grebe, avocet, osprey, cirl bunting, stone-curlew, corncrake, red kite, white-tailed eagle, crane, albatrosses, Gyps vultures and spoon-billed sandpipers.

Yet, the number of threatened species within the UK has grown - for example, 361 species have been identified as in imminent danger of being lost from England whilst a further 785 are threatened, rare, range-restricted or declining.  This is why we have had to think and act differently to scale up our conservation efforts.

Black-tailed godwit - one of the species that will benefit from the funding - by Gordon Langsbury (rspb-images.com)

Today, I am delighted to report the fantastic news that the National Lottery has agreed to invest £4.6m in backing one of the most ambitious conservation projects ever undertaken in the UK. The RSPB has joined forces with Natural England, the Amphibian and Reptile Trust, Bat Conservation Trust, Buglife, Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Butterfly Conservation and Plantlife to develop new ways ways of working together to inspire people to take action for threatened species.

The project is a mix of targeted work for 20 of our most threatened species alongside action in landscapes across England from the Yorkshire Dales to Cornwall to help a further 200 species including the grey long-eared bat, pine martin, willow tit, large garden bumblebee, lesser butterfly orchid and hedgehog. Back from the Brink is ambitious, it is exciting and I am confident will deliver fantastic results of nature.  

We intend to pilot new approaches to inspire action from our own supporters, landowners, farmers and local community groups who will be recruited to observe and record these threatened species and help provide the habitats and help they need.

This has project has been a long time in development.  With funding now in place, we can start to build the team to put life back into England's green and pleasant land.  

I look forward to reporting more good news about this project soon...