The Species Recovery Trust is dedicated to stopping some of the UK’s rarest species from going extinct, and re-connecting people with the wildlife found around them. Its work focusses on doing the following …
- Shortlisting species which are currently demonstrating catastrophic levels of decline in the UK, those which already exist at such low numbers that their long-term survival remains uncertain or those which may be at risk in the near future from emerging threats.
- Analysing current data to determine which species to target, to understand where they occur, and to identify which populations are at critical risk.
- Intervening at critical sites and carrying out emergency habitat restoration to prevent extinction and build populations up to genetically viable levels. For those populations which have reached sub-critical levels, captive bred specimens (under licence) will be reintroduced to create viable breeding populations.
- Where disjunct habitats do not allow natural migration create new populations, ultimately with the aim of linking vulnerable and isolated communities and establishing networks of healthy functioning meta-populations.
- Working with landowners to improve their understanding of the species and encouraging sustained management over the longer term, wherever possible embedding it within other ongoing management work (e.g. woodland coppicing, hay meadow management).
- Encouraging community ownership of projects, and galvanise local groups to adopt their sites. Campaigning to raise the status of rare species in the hearts and minds of the public, the media and politicians.
- Training a whole new generation of wildlife enthusiasts to ensure we never lose touch with the natural world around us.
Click here to find out more about the science underpinning what the Trust does.