The Government has announced £30 million to restore wildlife rich habitat across England’s protected landscapes, prompting the moorland notebook to ask whether this is finally its year for a small administrative trophy.
The Wildlife Rich Habitat Fund will provide £10 million per financial year from 2026 to 2029. It will operate across National Parks, National Landscapes and the Broads, with 36 of England’s 44 Protected Landscapes taking part in the first year. The money will travel through the existing Farming in Protected Landscapes programme infrastructure, which sounds practical enough to make a government form briefly suspicious of itself.
The purpose is serious. The fund is intended to restore and create habitat, including wet heath, deep peat and native woodland, while helping threatened species and supporting the ambition to protect 30% of England’s land for nature by 2030. The moorland notebook has responded by asking whether a habitat can be restored using only a management plan, three meetings and one person who knows where the latest version lives.
Local protected landscape organisations will work with conservation groups, farmers, land managers and communities. Projects are meant to follow local priorities, management plans and Local Nature Recovery Strategies. This is partnership working, a system in which everyone is invited to bring local knowledge and somebody else’s password.
The Government says the fund is separate from the farming budget and does not affect the existing Farming in Protected Landscapes programme. This distinction will be watched closely by anyone who has been assured that two pots of money are completely separate, apart from the forms, eligibility rules and meeting explaining why they are separate.
The announcement follows a £90 million commitment for species recovery made in March and forms part of the wider Wild Again programme. The ambition is large, the habitats are real and the work will depend on people who know the land rather than merely knowing how to make an arrow move across a presentation.
The moorland notebook has now submitted its application for a tiny trophy recognising excellence in remaining open beside a peat bog. Its application was returned because the trophy fund requires evidence of measurable impact, two local partners and a clearer explanation of why the trophy is not technically a habitat.
It has resubmitted the form with a woodland attached. The woodland has been approved. The notebook is still awaiting a decision from the committee responsible for modest recognition.
Source: GOV.UK.
