A new report by The Wildlife Trusts identifies drought as the current leading threat to their 2,600 nature reserves.
The Embracing Nature report, published today, predicts that drought, and other climate-related dangers such as heatwaves and wildfires, will continue to be the main threats to nature reserves for the next 30 years.
Pollution, invasive species and habitat fragmentation are also considered high risks.
The report focuses on how The Wildlife Trusts – who are one of UK’s largest landowners with nearly 100,000 hectares – can adapt to climate change.
Based on a predicted 2°C warming by 2100, half of The Wildlife Trusts' reserves will be in areas at risk of extreme wildfire.
Work to future-proof against climate change is already underway in nature reserves throughout the UK, with habitat regeneration, as well as restoration of peatlands, grasslands, woodlands, freshwater, marine and coastal areas a top priority.
“The Wildlife Trusts are taking action to adapt to climate threats across all our land and marine habitats through helping nature to recover, slowing the flow of rivers, and restoring peatlands," says Kathryn Brown, director of climate change and evidence at The Wildlife Trusts.
"This, in turn, supports wildlife and people to be more resilient to drought, wildfire, heatwaves and flooding. Nature-based solutions are now nature-based necessities, and we must all embrace the role that nature can play in enabling landscapes to adapt.
“We've seen one climate record after another broken over the past 12 months. The UK’s natural habitats, and the wildlife that depends on them, are under huge pressure so it’s vital that UK Government raises ambition on adapting to climate change.”
The Wildlife Trusts highlight several case studies where future-proofing projects are already underway.
The Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire has boosted fenland resilience through its acquisition of Speechly’s Farm. The 134 hectares 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 hectares. This has improved connectivity and the habitat will retain more carbon stores in times of drought.
The 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.
Meanwhile, 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. 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 Embracing Nature report has been submitted 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' report includes a list of priorities that they believe the UK Government should commit to:
- Report on, and increase where necessary, total investment in adaptation for nature and nature-based solutions to at least £3 billion per year up to 2030. An important component of this should be the continuation of the Nature for Climate Fund and strengthening of partnerships that provide nature-based solutions
- Re-start bespoke adaptation support services for organisations, like charities, who need it – through committing at least £1 million to its arm’s length bodies to provide support
- Move responsibility for the coordination of adaptation policy across UK Government from Defra to the Cabinet Office
- Immediately unblock or enact delayed policies from the last Government that will improve the resilience of the natural environment and its ability to help people to adapt. This includes banning the use of peat in horticulture, enabling wild beaver release licences, incorporating climate resilience in the new land use framework, enhancing regulation and enforcement related to pollution of our water bodies from agriculture and sewage discharges
- Maintain the ban on sand-eel fishing at sea. The ban in the North Sea is a core component of resilience for marine wildlife and we look forward to seeing this upheld
The full Embracing Nature report can be read here.
Main image: West scrape at Potteric Carr nature reserve. Credit: Jim Horsfall
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