£90m England wildlife fund backs 350 threatened species

England is putting £90 million into species recovery, with Natural England saying 364 threatened species will benefit from the biggest funding package of its kind so far. The main pot is £60 million over the next three years for 130 projects across England, with a further £30 million set aside for species recovery on the national forest estate. That sounds like a large, tidy number, but it helps to slow down and ask what it really means. According to Defra and Natural England, this is not only about saving a few well-known animals. The funded work stretches across plants, animals and fungi, and reaches birds, beetles, moths, mammals, spiders, snails, sharks and seahorses. In other words, the plan is trying to deal with a broad wildlife problem, not a single-species emergency.

The context is stark. The government release says wildlife populations have fallen by a third since 1970, and that one in six species in Great Britain is at risk of extinction. That is the backdrop for this announcement, and it matters because species decline rarely stays contained to one corner of nature. When habitats weaken, food chains weaken with them. What this means is simple: species recovery is not only about sentiment or about protecting something pretty. It is also about keeping ecosystems working. If pollinators disappear, crops can suffer. If rivers are damaged, freshwater life suffers first, but people feel the effects too. This is why the announcement is framed as both a wildlife story and a public policy story.

One of the most useful parts of the plan is its focus on farmed areas, because that is where some of the sharpest wildlife losses have happened. Natural England says several projects will work with farmers and land managers to restore habitats while food production continues. That matters because public debate often treats farming and nature as if they must always be in conflict. The article pushes a different idea: healthy ecosystems help make agriculture more resilient. Pollinators support crop yields, soils need living systems around them, and farms do better over time when water, insects and plant life are not pushed to breaking point. You do not have to choose between caring about food security and caring about biodiversity. Good policy should try to hold both together.

Some of the funded species show just how varied this work is. The ghost orchid, one of England’s rarest and most elusive plants, will be searched for using detection dogs and environmental DNA, or eDNA. If that term feels technical, the basic idea is that living things leave tiny traces of genetic material in the environment, which scientists can test for. It is a way of finding out whether a species is present without always seeing it directly. Other projects are more place-based. In Cumbria, the northern dune tiger beetle will be the focus of conservation work led by the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust. The field gentian, one of England’s rarest plants, will also receive support, alongside heath lobelia in Devon and Cornwall. These are not household names for most people, but that is part of the lesson here: conservation cannot only follow fame.

Freshwater and marine species are included too, which helps show how wide the problem is. The white-clawed crayfish, the UK’s only native crayfish, is under pressure from invasive species and will be supported through a project led by the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts. This is a reminder that species decline is not always caused by one big dramatic event; sometimes it comes from steady pressure over years. At sea, Zoological Society of London will study exposure to PFAS in dolphins and harbour porpoises. PFAS are often described as ‘forever chemicals’ because they can persist in the environment for a very long time. The government release says their effects on these animals are still poorly understood, which is worth noting. Recovery work is not only about direct intervention. Sometimes the first job is to find out what damage is being done and how serious it is.

The better-known species in the announcement may help bring wider public attention. Natural England says the swallowtail butterfly will be tracked to understand how individual butterflies use the landscape and how closely they are tied to milk-parsley, the plant its caterpillars need. The tansy beetle, with its bright metallic colour, will also be part of a project linking riverside habitats, farming areas and local communities. That last point matters more than it may first appear. Conservation succeeds more often when it is not sealed off from everyday life. When projects connect wildlife with places where people farm, work, travel and live, they have a better chance of lasting. Nature policy can seem distant until you realise it is also about riverbanks, hedgerows, grazing land and the insects that keep those systems going.

Another striking part of the plan is the use of Native Species Recovery Hubs led by BIAZA zoos, aquariums and partner organisations. These hubs will run ex-situ breed-for-release work for 16 rare invertebrate species. Ex-situ simply means outside a species’ natural habitat, so this could include controlled breeding before animals are released back into the wild. That approach can sound unusual, but it has a clear logic. If a species has fallen to very low numbers, rebuilding a population in a protected setting may give it a better chance than leaving it to struggle on alone. The government also says these hubs will bring in zoo visitors, scientific groups and new audiences. For The Common Room’s readers, that is a useful reminder that conservation is also about public understanding. People are more likely to defend what they have learned to recognise.

There is a political layer here as well. Defra says this announcement supports legal targets in the Environmental Improvement Plan: halting the decline in species abundance by 2030 and reducing species extinction risk by 2042 against 2022 levels. Ministers are also pairing this with a wider nature-friendly farming budget of £11.8 billion across this Parliament, three new national forests and the first wild beaver releases since beavers were hunted to extinction in Britain around 400 years ago. But it is worth reading the announcement with clear eyes. This is a government press release, so it is designed to present the policy in its best light. It tells us what money has been promised and what ministers want the public to notice. It does not yet prove which projects will work best, how quickly species numbers will change, or whether future governments will keep the same level of backing. The full list of projects is on GOV.UK, and that is where the next stage of scrutiny should begin.