Government announces £90m for species recovery in largest ever investment to protect England's threatened wildlife

The government has announced the largest ever public investment in threatened species recovery, committing £90 million to protect hundreds of England's most vulnerable native wildlife from extinction.

Of the total, £60 million will be directed over the next three years into the Species Recovery Programme — more than double the previous round of funding — while a further £30 million will be dedicated to species recovery across the national forest estate. The announcement was made on 3 April 2026 by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs alongside a new campaign, "Wild Again: Restoring England's Wildlife".

Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds said: "This Government is bringing threatened wildlife back from the brink with the largest ever investment in species recovery. This long-term commitment is a decisive step towards reversing the decline of nature and protecting it for generations to come."

The Species Recovery Programme, run by Natural England, funds conservation projects encompassing habitat restoration, captive breeding and species reintroductions. While the successful projects set to receive funding for the 2026–2029 period will be confirmed by Natural England in May, early indications suggest support will span a broad range of species — from birds, beetles and moths to mammals, spiders, snails and seahorses.

Over the past three decades, the programme has helped protect more than 1,000 species and prevented the national extinction of at least 35. Between 2022 and 2024, more than 600 species benefited from conservation efforts, including the water vole, hazel dormouse and oystercatcher. Among the programme's most notable recent successes are the first red-billed chough to hatch in the wild in Kent for over 200 years, the successful reintroduction of black grouse to the North Yorkshire Moors, and the return of the large marsh grasshopper to the Norfolk Broads after an 85-year absence.

Scale of the challenge

England is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. Since 1970, wildlife populations have fallen by a third, with one in six species now at risk of extinction. The funding increase is intended to help the government meet its legal targets under the Environmental Improvement Plan, which commits to halting the decline in species abundance by 2030 and reducing species extinction risk by 2042 against 2022 levels.

Natural England chair Tony Juniper welcomed the announcement, saying: "If there is one positive thing about species decline, it is the fact that it is usually reversible. For decades Natural England's species recovery work has revealed how even the rarest of the rare can be brought back from the brink. The red kite, lady's slipper orchid, pool frog, beaver and large blue butterfly are among the examples that demonstrate the many opportunities at hand."

The investment sits alongside a series of wider government commitments to nature recovery, including what ministers have described as the largest nature-friendly farming budget in history — £11.8 billion to be spent across this parliament — as well as the creation of three new National Forests and the approval of the first wild beaver releases since the animals were hunted to extinction in England around 400 years ago.

Projects making a difference

The government highlighted a range of successful projects funded under the Species Recovery Programme. In Yorkshire, a 30-year partnership between Natural England, the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Plantlife and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust has seen the lady's slipper orchid — the country's rarest — naturally propagate in the wild for the first time. In Berkshire, wildlife tunnels built beneath a road bisecting Greenham and Crookham commons have been successfully used by adders, while in Sussex, disused buildings have been converted into breeding sites for greater horseshoe bats.

Elsewhere, water vole habitats have been created across four counties — Northamptonshire, Cheshire, Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire — including the installation of water vole "motels" along a canal in Coventry and the captive rearing and release of more than 420 animals. In Cumbria, river habitat improvements by the West Cumbria Rivers Trust have benefited both Atlantic salmon and freshwater pearl mussels, with nearly 2,500 juvenile mussels released into local streams.