A £1.5 million grant has been secured by the team at the North Wessex Downs National Landscape Partnership from the Government’s Species Survival Fund. The grant is for the Partnerships for Nature programme – a suite of projects across seven sites which will restore and enhance a range of important habitats for a diversity of species, making the landscape a better place for nature.
Last year, the North Wessex Downs team published a Nature Recovery Plan which identifies priorities for restoring nature in the protected landscape. The funding will focus conservation effort on the programme’s seven sites and kickstart delivery against the Plan.
Work within the Partnerships for Nature programme will help to restore and enhance heathland and wood pasture at Bucklebury Common, chalk grassland restoration at Tidcombe near Marlborough, chalk stream and riverbank improvement on the River Kennet also benefits wet woodland and floodplain meadow, wetland creation at Pangbourne, new cultivated field margins near Lambourn for arable plants, ash management and hazel coppice restoration at Moor Copse Tidmarsh and regenerative arable field management at Earth Trust at Little Wittenham.
DEFRA Minister Rebecca Pow visited one of the seven sites, Bucklebury Common, earlier in March to learn about the proposals and heard first-hand about how the grant will impact nature recovery.
Match funding from other sources takes the total value of the programme to £1.7 million which involves multiple partners including farmers, private-landowners and environmental non-government organisations. Partnerships for Nature will run until March 2026.
The Government’s Species Survival Fund was developed by Defra and its Arm’s-Length Bodies. It is being delivered by The National Lottery Heritage Fund in partnership with Natural England and the Environment Agency.

Minister Pow at Bucklebury Common with Corinna Woodall, Senior Project Development Funding Officer from North Wessex Downs National Landscape and representatives of the Partnerships for Nature programme. (LtoR: Drew Bennellick (Heritage Fund), Minister Pow (Defra), Alasdair Jones-Perrott (Bucklebury Estate), Corinna Woodall (North Wessex Downs National Landscape Partnership), Desmond Hartley Russell (Bucklebury Estate) and Alex Cruikshank (Sundew Ecology). Image credit: Millbank Creative for DEFRA

Work within the Partnerships for Nature programme will include introducing grazing and other habitat features to lowland heath (the largest remnant of this rare habitat in the North Wessex Downs) and wood pasture at Bucklebury Common, benefitting birds such as nightjar and woodlark and other vulnerable species such as crickets and lizards.
Chalk grassland restoration at Tidcombe will provide more homes for butterfly species such as the chalk hill blue and Duke of Burgundy butterflies. Chalk stream and riverbank improvement on the River Kennet SSSI will support the unique and threatened ecology of these globally-important and rare habitats, helping species such as water vole and Desmoulin’s whorl snail and other declining invertebrates.
Other project outcomes such as wetland habitats created at Pangbourne, new cultivated field margins at Sheepdrove Organic Farm and regenerative arable field management at The Earth Trust will encourage a range of wildlife including threatened arable plants and declining farmland birds such as lapwing.

Semi-improved chalk downland to be enriched and restored near Marlborough. Image credit: Belinda Bown

Corinna Woodall, Project Development and Funding Officer for the North Wessex Downs National Landscape Partnership said:

“We are really thrilled to have been successful in our bid to the Species Survival Fund and are very excited to be working with our partners on this ambitious and far-reaching partnership programme. Through this grant we will make some real progress towards achieving some of the key priorities identified in our Nature Recovery Plan and help to bring nature back into our National Landscape.
The Partnerships for Nature programme will be co-ordinated by the team at the North Wessex Downs National Landscape Partnership. Programme partners include Action for River Kennet (ARK), the Benham Estate, the Bucklebury Estate, BBOWT, Earth Trust, Southern Streams Farmer Group and the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group South-East, the Sulham Estate, Sheepdrove Organic Farm and Plantlife.

The Species Survival Fund, a partnership between Defra and The National Lottery Heritage Fund, has seen grants of up to £3 million awarded across England for habitat creation and restoration projects to run over the next two years. The Fund will help halt and reverse the decline in species abundance by preserving vital habitats. The new funding is supporting projects that tackle habitat loss, safeguard our fragile ecosystems, and create and restore nature-rich landscapes full of wildlife-friendly habitats within precious chalk streams, wetlands, heathlands, grasslands and scrublands. The fund will create and improve natural habitats, helping Defra to meet their target to protect 30% of land for nature by 2030 (known as 30by30).
The Species Survival Fund builds upon the success of similar initiatives like the Green Recovery Challenge Fund and will create the foundations for ongoing expansion of habitats to support our wildlife. In 2020 North Wessex Downs National Landscape was successful in bidding for £400K from the Green Recovery Challenge Fund for their Sparkling Streams partnership project which was completed in March 2022.

Environment Minister, Rebecca Pow, said:

“The funding awarded today as part our flagship Species Survival Fund will enable local authorities, landowners, farmers, and our protected landscapes organisations to restore nature at scale and provide valuable green jobs in the process.
“Only by creating bigger and better habitats for wildlife will we be able to halt the alarming decline in species loss. This fund will be a key plank in achieving our legally binding targets to halt species loss and protect 30% land for nature by 2030.”

Eilish McGuinness, Chief Executive, The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said:

‘We are delighted to be working in partnership with Defra again to distribute funding for these projects, which will support nature recovery by helping to boost the quality and quantity of wildlife-rich habitats across England. This partnership will further our vision for heritage to be valued, cared for and sustained for everyone, now and in the future.’

More details about Partnerships for Nature will be published on the North Wessex Downs website shortly.
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