A real success story
Truly Back from the Brink - Bat Conservation Trust
Almost one hundred threatened species in England have seen their prospects of survival improved after 5 years of concerted emergency work by nearly 100 organisations funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
The Back from the Brink (BftB) programme has been a game-changing partnership of organisations who have worked together to turn the tide for some of England’s most threatened species, and to inspire the nation to connect with and care for our vulnerable wildlife.
The prospects for targeted populations of our threatened species have been improved thanks to the practical actions carried out to support them, with more people knowing about and acting for them, and more effective collaborative working by conservation bodies on species recovery.
96 priority species have made recovery progress to improve their conservation status and prospects as a result of the project, which has contributed to 561 nationally identified priority actions benefiting a total of 188 species.
More than 59,000 people have been directly engaged. This included over 10,000 who have learnt skills and nearly 4,000 active volunteers, who contributed over 25 years’ of time in total.
The eight Back from the Brink partners worked effectively together and with 90 other organisations across England to significantly boost more joined-up efforts for species recovery. This has been underpinned by a new framework for the conservation sector to work in partnership for the future.
Nineteen species conservation projects were spread across the breadth of England from Lands’ End to the Scottish Borders on around 600 sites, located in places as diverse as: the Dorset heaths, North Downs, Cotswolds, Breckland, Rockingham Forest, Dearne Valley, Sefton Coast and the Yorkshire Wolds.
The organisations warn, however, that full species recovery takes much longer than five years, and improving the prospects of the species targeted is only the vital first stage – with further populations still to address, and many more species also at risk.
Although the Back from the Brink programme has now finished, it leaves a living legacy with an army of trained volunteers continuing the work, a wealth of information available on-line and continued funded projects from some of the partner organisations working on endangered species. Work is also now underway in Scotland with the Species on the Edge partnership project and in Wales Natur am Byth completing funded development stages ahead of launching large scale species recovery projects.
Dr Carol Williams, Bat Conservation Trust's Director of Conservation: "Grey long-eared bats remain one of England’s rarest mammal species. The collaborative approach taken by the Back from the Brink project has enabled us to work with farmers and other land managers to increase the potential of this bat species surviving to the future. The legacy of Back from the Brink has already created new collaborations such as the Return of the Nightrider project with East Devon AONB. We are planning to build on the foundations of Back from the Brink project further so we can make sure grey long-eared bats can be seen hunting insects in the night skies by future generations."
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Posted On: 14/02/2022