Somerset joins landmark nature recovery project

Somerset joins landmark nature recovery project

Posted on: 01 Jun 2022

The multi-partnership project will aim to protect wildlife and improve public access to nature in the Southwest and beyond.

 

It was announced last week that Somerset will join the West Midlands, Cambridgeshire, the Peak District and Norfolk in the unique scheme - the Somerset branch of which boasts a new 'super' National Nature Reserve.

 

As part of the project, over 99,000 hectares - equivalent to England’s current 219 National Nature Reserves - of England are set to be dedicated to supporting the natural world for everyone to enjoy. 

 

 

Millions of people are expected to benefit from increased opportunities to engage with nature as the dual projects (spearheaded by Natural England) will deliver nature recovery at a massive scale, helping to tackle biodiversity loss, climate change and public health and wellbeing.

 

The recently announced 6,140-hectare 'super' National Nature Reserve sits at the heart of the Somerset Wetlands nature recovery project. The involvement of this new project will build on the important work already being done by the super NNR, but on a scale 10 times larger.

 

It will achieve this ambitious goal by working with local partners and landowners to enhance nature recovery through habitat creation and investing in strategic solutions that make the wetlands more sustainable and the landscape more resilient to climate change.

Speaking about the project, Georgia Stokes (CEO of Somerset Wildlife Trust) has said: 

 

“The Somerset Wetlands Nature Recovery Project is a game-changing opportunity to bring landowners together to deliver bigger benefits for wildlife, local people and communities, and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions reductions by returning this landscape to a huge carbon store instead of carbon-emitting as it is now.

 

Efforts will be led by a strong local delivery partnership, including Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Somerset Wildlife Trust, Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group South West (FWAG), Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) and Environment Agency.

In its first year, 11 goals will be hit, under the themes of habitat restoration, landowner engagement, strategic research and solutions, as well as climate adaption and carbon storage.

 

The long-term ambition is to restore ecological processes across the whole of the Somerset Levels and Moors landscape. In the future, the project plans to increase the nature connectedness of communities in the nearby urban centres through increasing access opportunities, interpretation, and outreach to new audiences.

 

An initial £2.4 million funding is being provided by DEFRA and Natural England to help carry out these aims. Visit the Natural England website to find out more information.

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Article by:

Stanley Gray

Stan is a born and bred Bristolian, recently graduated from studying English Literature in Sheffield. His passions are music and literature and he spends the majority of his time in venues all over the city, immersing himself in Bristol’s alternative music scene. A lifelong Bristol City fan, Stan’s Saturdays are spent watching his team both home and away.