A new report, Embracing Nature, published by The Wildlife Trusts, identifies drought as the current leading threat to their nature reserves for the first time.
The Wildlife Trusts, who are among the UK’s largest landowners with 2,600 nature reserves covering nearly 100,000 hectares (ha), also point to pollution, invasive species and habitat fragmentation as high risks. Drought is also considered to be the leading threat for the next 30 years, followed by other climate-driven dangers such as heatwaves and wildfires.
The report focuses on adapting to climate change and highlights that, based on a trajectory of 2°C warming by 2100, almost half of The Wildlife Trusts’ 2,600 reserves will be in areas of extreme wildfire risk, and three-quarters will see summer temperatures rising by an additional 1.5°C in the next 25 years.
Adaptation work is being undertaken across The Wildlife Trusts’ nature reserves to re-connect and regenerate habitats to help nature cope with weather extremes. Peatlands, grasslands, woodlands, freshwater, marine and coastal areas are being restored, and in some cases re-invented, to support species at risk such as curlew, through severe weather. For example:
- The Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire & Northamptonshire has boosted fenland resilience through its acquisition of Speechly’s Farm. 134 ha of former degraded farmland now connects Holme Fen and Woodwalton Fen National Nature Reserves, increasing the peatland restored in the Great Fen to 1,900 ha. Effect: improved connectivity and the habitat will retain more carbon stores in times of drought
- Norfolk Wildlife Trust has been working with the Environment Agency to adapt Cley and Salthouse Marshes. They have rejuvenated reedbeds and moved a section of the ‘New Cut’ flood drain to evacuate flood water more effectively and help the marshes maintain freshwater coastal habitats
- Manx Wildlife Trust has planted 8,000 trees to create a new temperate rainforest at Creg y Cowin and they are planning to plant a further 27,000 over the next four years. Effect: as the canopy closes this will create a cool, damp refuge for animals away from extreme temperatures benefitting birds such as pied flycatcher and wood warbler
The Wildlife Trusts have submitted Embracing Nature to the UK Government under its Adaptation Reporting Power, a provision of the 2008 UK Climate Change Act which allows the government to invite organisations of strategic national importance to report on their adaptation activities. The Wildlife Trusts are the first organisation to report under the latest fourth round, which closes at the end of this year.