UK Nature and Environment

With the details of the Labour Government’s long anticipated Budget now unveiled, The Wildlife Trusts’ Senior Land Use Policy Manager Barnaby Coupe looks at the implications for Defra’s flagship environment schemes and support for nature-friendly farming.

Rachel Reeves’ announcement today confirmed that Defra’s annual budget for nature-friendly farming would be maintained at £2.4 billion. Considering the rumours of significant spending cuts in the build-up to the budget, you would be forgiven for thinking that Defra has dodged a bullet by securing the same amount of money going forward. Whilst this outcome is better than many expected and retains a significant budget for nature-friendly farming, the picture is far from rosy.

Notwithstanding that the farming budget hasn’t increased since 2007, meaning a real terms funding cut after inflation, the fact remains there is not enough money in the pot for Defra to do everything it needs to do. Independent analysis on behalf of The Wildlife Trusts, RSPB and National Trust conducted earlier this year found that £3.1 billion needs to be spent on nature-friendly farming and land management annually in England to meet the UK Government’s own legally binding targets. Calls for a budget increase were echoed by farming groups.

Conservationists are calling on business and industry to help fund an ambitious project to restore the landscape of the Darent Valley in Kent.

They hope it will help protect current wildlife species, as well bring back others that have been virtually lost, such as wild brown trout.

Marc Crouch from Kent Wildlife Trust said: “A key aim of the project is habitat and river restoration - re-wetting and creation of wetland habitat, flood mitigation and addressing barriers to fish passage.”

The Autumnwatch team may have observed "the highest population of badgers anywhere ever recorded", presenter Chris Packham has said.

The animals were tracked in the dark during last night's episode broadcast from Wytham Great Wood near Oxford.

The team relied on thermal cameras that see the creatures' body heat.

Mr Packham said there were about 250 adult animals in about 20 social groups, with 1,000 holes to emerge on the wood's grounds.

Rare spiders are among 55 different species of athropods that have been found living at a nature reserve.

The British Arachnological Society, external, a charity dedicated exclusively to spiders and their relatives, conducted research at Orford Ness near Orford in Suffolk.

Of the 55 spider species, the National Trust site was found to be the home to 12 that are nationally rare or scarce.

A tree in the Scottish Highlands thought to be at least 1,000 years old and known as the Skipinnish Oak has been named UK Tree of the Year.

Native woodland experts had no idea the tree existed until a gathering in 2009.

The band Skipinnish, which had played at the event, knew of the tree and led the conservationists to where it was hidden in a non-native Sitka spruce plantation on Achnacarry Estate.

It has won a public vote against 11 other contenders in the Woodland Trust competition.

Wildlife on Orkney has begun a remarkable recovery - after the systematic wipeout of more than 6000 predatory stoats.

The native Orkney Vole and red-listed birds like Hen Harriers and Lapwings have all recorded encouraging numbers boosts since a major conservation project was launched five years ago. Central to the mission was the eradication of invasive species the stoat, first recorded on the island in 2010.

More than 6500 stoats have been eradicated from Orkney using humane lethal traps, the biggest project of its kind in the world. Conservation scientists monitoring wildlife on Orkney report there are now significant increases in successful nesting attempts of ground-nesting birds such as the Hen Harrier and rare waders.

The Wildlife Trusts have bought part of the Duke of Northumberland’s son’s estate in the largest land sale in England for 30 years.

Marketed by its estate agents as “a paradise for those with a penchant for sporting pursuits, from world-class fishing on the illustrious River Coquet to pheasant and grouse shooting”, Rothbury estate has now been bought by the federation of charities, which plans to restore it for nature.

The Wildlife Trusts are buying the land in an unusual two-phase deal: having already bought a “significant” chunk of the 3,850-hectare (9,500-acre) estate, they have been given two years to find the rest of the money, for which they are launching a fundraising appeal. The estate was previously used for intensive sheep farming and shooting.

It may have been a fairly awful summer for butterflies but Scotland continues to enjoy some pleasant lepidopteran surprises, thanks to global heating.

Its list of resident species increased by one this year when the gatekeeper, never officially recorded north of the border in the past century, was spotted in several locations. Meanwhile, the elusive white-letter hairstreak, which was only recorded for the first time close to the River Tweed in 2017, has now been found in Dundee, more than 60 miles farther north.

The gatekeeper – so-called because of its habitat of rough grassland beside hedges and gates – is one of England’s commonest butterflies. This year it was found at the Crook of Baldoon RSPB reserve near Wigtown in Dumfries and Galloway, before George Thomson, the author of The Butterflies of Scotland, obtained the first photographic proof – a female in his garden.

Just 7% of England is currently protected for nature, the Government has said, as it set out rules to help meet a global goal to protect 30% of land by 2030.

Officials said protected landscapes such as national parks, will deliver the “backbone” of areas conserved for nature, though they currently do not count towards the total, and the target could also include areas of nature-friendly farming.

The UK has signed up to global commitments to protect 30% of its land and seas for nature by 2030, known as 30×30, as part of efforts to halt catastrophic declines in wildlife.

Rachel Reeves has been urged not to cut the government’s environment funding in the budget as analysis shows the department’s finances were slashed at twice the rate of other departments in the austerity years.

Between 2009/10 and 2018/19, the environment department budget declined by 35% in monetary terms and 45% in real terms, according to Guardian analysis of annual reports from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Environment Agency and Natural England. By comparison, the average cut across government departments during the Conservative austerity programme was about 20%. During the first five years of austerity, it was the most cut department.

The budget for the department rose in the years between 2018/19 and 2021/22, but this is because it was given many new roles after Brexit, including taking on the £2.4bn a year farming budget which once came from the EU, and hiring staff to go through the EU statute book to see which environmental laws should be replicated in the UK. This new money, analysts argue, did not fill the gap left by deep cuts made under austerity, because it was ringfenced for new functions Defra did not previously perform.

An alarming level of microplastic fragments, 2,147 items kg-1 d.w. sediment (average value), were found to be prevalent throughout the intertidal mudflat sediments within the Medina Estuary, a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

Microplastics are particles which measure less than five millimetres, and exist in an array of shapes and forms. They cause pollution by entering natural ecosystems from a variety of sources, including run-off from land-based sources and wastewater discharge from Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs).

Report author Liberty Turrell, a Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust Volunteer and University of Manchester first-class graduate, collected mudflat sediment from 16 sample sites during low tides for her undergraduate dissertation. Analysis of the mud under laboratory conditions discovered three different microplastic shapes: fibres, fragments and beads. Microfibre was the most frequent occurring microplastic shape (99% of all microplastics were microfibres) occurring at all 16 sites.

Scientists reviewing the conservation status of the world’s bird populations have confirmed that four UK shorebird species have seen significant declines in numbers. As a result, Grey Plovers, Dunlins, Turnstones and Curlew Sandpipers have moved to higher threat categories on the global IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Ahead of the Budget announcement on Wednesday 30th October, here are three key priorities The Wildlife Trusts will be watching for.

At COP16 – the global UN nature conference in Cali, Colombia – today is Finance and Biodiversity Day.

Increasing the amount invested in nature, as well as reducing the harmful subsidies for nature’s destruction, is critical to meeting the environmental goals the world signed up to through the Global Biodiversity Framework. This week, the UK Government has the perfect opportunity to demonstrate how this can be achieved at home as Rachel Reeves announces her Budget on Wednesday in one of the most anticipated moments of the new Government.

The Chancellor has promised to use Labour’s first budget in more than a decade to reboot economic growth by prioritising investment in infrastructure and repairing public services. But to get Britain growing, investment in repairing our natural infrastructure cannot be forgotten.

A free online skills development programme developed by the Scottish Wildlife Trust is now available to people and communities across Scotland.

Over the past two years, nearly 40 community leaders have taken part in the Nextdoor Nature Pioneers Programme, a training course which has equipped them with the knowledge, skills and confidence to organise positive action for nature and improve their neighbourhoods.

As of this week, the online modules from the programme are now freely accessible for anyone to sign up to. Subjects covered during the eight-week course range from basic wildlife ecology to how to secure funding for community projects, with a number of additional optional modules available once people have completed the course.

Planners have backed proposals to plant about 30,000 trees as part of the creation of a nature reserve on the Isle of Man.

Situated at Creg y Cowin Farm, in East Baldwin, the plans submitted by nature charity Manx Wildlife Trust are part of a wider £38m rainforest restoration scheme across the British Isles.

Some 25 different species of trees native to the island would be planted across the 105-acre site, formerly used for sheep grazing, for carbon sequestration.

Cheshire’s ancient woodlands are a cherished part of the county’s natural heritage, offering not just a haven for wildlife but also a repository of memories for generations of local people. These woodlands, some of which have existed since medieval times, provide an enchanting escape into nature and a living connection to the past. As we look to the future, there is enormous potential to increase our native tree cover, benefiting wildlife, farming and the wider environment.

For many of us who grew up in Cheshire, woodlands hold a special place in our hearts. As children, we often wandered through these magical forests, our imaginations set free by the towering trees and the dappled sunlight that filtered through the canopy. In woodlands and forests such as Delamere Forest and Marbury Country Park, the massive oaks and beeches provided perfect hiding spots, their gnarled trunks offering refuge from friends during games of hide and seek. The thrill of being discovered or finding a new hiding place is a memory many of us cherish deeply.

A microscopic beetle has been discovered at a nature reserve.

The smallest beetle in Europe, measuring just 0.4mm in length, has been discovered at Rutland Water.

It is only the third time this species has been recorded in Britain and the first time it has been found outside of East Anglia.

Bats are traditionally linked to Halloween and at Longleat in Wiltshire, 14 different species of the flying mammal have been identified including several of the rarest in the UK.

Across the world, bats are heavily persecuted due to fictional associations with evil, yet they play an important part in ecosystems, for example in pollination and seed dispersal says Longleat’s conservation and research manager Dr Tom Lewis.

“Bechstein’s bat, which we believe is breeding on the estate, has become one of our rarest bats, largely due to the widespread destruction of ancient woodlands that once blanketed the country,” he said.

Thousands of people from the Midlands will be joining forces to highlight the importance of clean water in their lives.

Friends of the River Wye, and SafeAvon are just some of the 130 groups taking part in a London rally organised by the campaign charity River Action.

The RSPB, the National Trust and the World Wildlife Fund will be joined by naturalist Chris Packham, broadcasters Carol Vorderman and Liz Bonnin and Olympic rowing champion Imogen Grant in the capital on Sunday.

Tonnes of carbon dioxide could be absorbed from the atmosphere after almost 300,000 trees were planted, an environmental group has said.

Over the last 12 months, an army of volunteers for the North East Community Forest also planted hedgerows in parts of Northumberland, Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland and rural County Durham.

The group said it estimated the trees would capture about 51,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere over 30 years.

More than 2,000 people took part in the scheme.

Excitement is building for the incredible murmurations the city is treated to every year as the starlings begin to return home.

The awe-inspiring displays see the birds dancing and whirling across the sky for protection as they prepare to settle down for the night.

Starlings group together in these magnificent spectacles across Sussex but the murmuration between the Palace Pier and the West Pier in Brighton is arguably the most famous in the county.

The recovery of nature must be a primary focus for government and developers, writes Erin McDaid of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust.

The Wildlife Trusts’ new report, Swift and Wild: How to build houses and restore nature together, calls for a strategic approach to planning and housebuilding as part of efforts to achieve wider environmental targets, including net-zero and protecting 30% of land for nature by 2030.

It also highlights the importance of embedding efforts to improve energy efficiency and delivering fair access to nature into the housebuilding process.

Plans have been submitted for a one kilometre long barrier near Plémont in Jersey that would offer better protection for puffins and other endangered birds.

It would work by preventing attacks from ferrets and other non-native predators.

The initial proposal was for the barrier to be three kilometres long, but the length was reduced after people's concerns were taken into account.

The island's puffin numbers have plummeted - there were a few hundred just a century ago but now there are just six remaining.

More than 100 competitors put their chainsaw skills to the test at the national hedgelaying championships earlier.

They were cheered on by hundreds of spectators at Driffield's Elmswell Farms, showcasing 10 regional styles.

Josie Muncaster, 31, styles her hedges in that of her home county, Cheshire.

She said "you don't have to be Superman" to take up the activity, but that she no longer "needs to go to the gym, which is nice".