The Country Landowners Association is reminding landowners and managers that they still have time to submit ideas for the Species Recovery Programme
Landowners and farmer clusters have until November 2nd to submit ideas on how to help preserve endangered fauna and flora. Application form and guidance can be found on the Natural England website. Applicants need to outline details of the project, including how it links to the Local Nature Recovery Strategy for the area, or any species conservation strategies that might be in place.
The scheme operates around the activities set out by Natural England in its Threatened Species Recovery Actions guidance and lists a total of 3,631 potential actions, 2,015 of which are eligible for the Species Recovery Programme funding. Each activity is linked to a particular species of flora or fauna that is threatened in the UK. Examples of eligible activities include restoring or creating habitats for the hedgehog or smooth snake.
For projects, funding requests must be between £10,000 and £1.5m, although this does not need to be the whole cost of the project and Natural England is encouraging match-funded applications.
The scheme cannot be used to pay for activities that could be funded by other government schemes, such as Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes. It also cannot be used for activities categorised as ‘landscape management’.
Natural England will base its decision on the value for money of the project and the suitability of the activities proposed to achieve the action.
