Baroness Young Supports Biodiversity Action Fund
This year, more than £2 million was granted to organisations including the RSPB, The Woodland Trust, Butterfly Conservation and The National Trust, all helping the UK to meet ambitious biodiversity targets.
With 2010 officially the International Year of Biodiversity, Baroness Young said now was an important time to support wildlife projects. "Funding from WREN and the Landfill Communities Fund is playing a key role in hitting Biodiversity Action Plan targets and is restoring rich, vibrant, precious habitats throughout the UK, helping diverse species like water voles, bitterns, butterflies, frogs and toads to survive and thrive."
WREN's £10million Biodiversity Action Fund aims to protect vital habitats for British wildlife.
Speaking about WREN's biodiversity fund for 2010, Baroness Young explained that WREN's commitment to biodiversity projects was for the long-term, with the organisation earmarking £10 million to the cause until 2014.
"We deliberately increased grants to £2 million this year, up from £1.6 million in 2009, because of the demand. WREN's £10 million fund supports ecological projects that have a significant long-term impact and will help to redress the biodiversity balance."
The 10 biodiversity projects to receive funding from WREN this year included:
- Cumbria Wildlife Trust (£131,589) to maintain, improve, expand and create habitats for juniper
- The National Trust (£224,583) to sustain and enhance floodplain grazing marshland in Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire
- West Glamorgan Commoners Association (£213,862) to connect, conserve and enhance heathland, purple moorgrass and rush pasture
- RSPB (£250,000) to enhance, restore and improve 135 hectares of wetland habitat and floodplain in Lochwinnoch
- The Wildlife Trust of South & West Wales (£139,711) to bring 100 hectares of purple moor grass and rhos pasture under management to help wildlife to thrive
- The Woodland Trust (£250,000) for restoration of ancient woodland in Cumbria
- Butterfly Conservation (£233,774) landscape restoration of limestone grasslands on the North Yorkshire Moors to secure habitats for Duke of Burgundy and Pearl-bordered Fritillary butterflies
- Warwickshire Wildlife Trust (£107,494) creation of and enhancement of reedbeds to encourage bittern snipe and water voles
- Froglife (£190,687) for the Glasgow Living Water project, to create, restore and promote ponds in Glasgow and North Lanarkshire for the benefit of reptiles and amphibians
- Sheffield Wildlife Trust (£238,107) create and restore priority habitats of meadow, heathland, ancient woodland and grassland to create a ecologically-functional net