## **Trustees’ Annual Report for the period**
**From:** 1 April 2023
**To:** 31 March 2024
**Charity name:** Natural Cambridgeshire
**Charity registration number:** 1193040
## **Objectives and Activities**
|**Objectives and Activities**|||
|---|---|---|
||SORP reference||
|Summary of the purposes of
the charity as set out in its
governing document|Para 1.17|**From our Constitution, the object of Natural**
**Cambridgeshire is:**
For the public benefit, the preservation,
conservation and protection of the
environment in particular but not exclusively
by (a) the advancement of biological diversity,
and (b) the promotion of sustainable
development in Cambridgeshire and
Peterborough.
Sustainable development means ‘development
which meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations
to meet their own needs’.|
|Summary of the main activities
in relation to those purposes
for the public benefit, in
particular, the activities,
projects or services identified
in the accounts.|Para 1.17 and 1.19|Advocacy for biodiversity and for the benefits
of biodiversity, including for public health and
well-being, climate adaptation, cleaner air,
improved water quality and availability,
healthier soils and flood risk mitigation.
Specifically, we:
• Signed an MoU with Cambridgeshire
County Council (November 2023) with
undertakings to support the development
of the Local Nature Recovery Strategy
(LNRS) for Cambridgeshire and
Peterborough; and to demonstrate the
strategic partnership between
Cambridgeshire County Council and Natural
Cambridgeshire.
• This included providing leadership and
support on the development of the LNRS as
a strategic partner, with our Director,
Pamela Abbott, taking on the role of Co-
chair of the LNRS Steering Group, in
addition to developingand implementinga|
LNRS stakeholder engagement and a communications plan, the implementation of which is ongoing. • Following the launch of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fund for Nature in Autumn 2022 and the identification of the first three beneficiary projects for Landscape funding in Spring 2023, we have been negotiating the release of monies with our funder, to support the implementation of these projects (ongoing). In Autumn 2023 we launched our Community Small Grants Scheme, with the first beneficiaries identified in February 2024. • We took a strategic lead in discussions with the water sector, to assist in resolving the water scarcity issues faced by our county; this included specifically making the case for agricultural (non-public water supply); identifying, developing and lobbying for measures to ensure available funding for on farm water storage (ongoing); and ensuring that the fragility of the future or our lowland peat soils were front and central to discussions. • In addition to LNRS activities outlined above, we continued to convene and facilitate stakeholder groups including for local authorities, farmers and landowners, community organisations and other organisations and individual working in the natural environment sector, including convening our quarterly online Partnership Forum meetings. In partnership with Fenland District Council we also convened a community ‘Nature Surgery’ day in Fenland, which was funded by our ‘Together for our Planet’ Community Fund grant. • We collated and published our annual ‘State of Nature in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough – A Report of our Partners’ Report. • We also contributed via our active participation as a partner or advisor, in key Cambridgeshire projects and initiatives, including the University of Cambridgeshire’s Centre for Landscape Restoration, Fens for the Future, etc.
||Statement confirming whether
the trustees have had regard
to the guidance issued by the
Charity Commission on public
benefit|Para 1.18|Trustees as part of their commitment to the
organisation and their initial induction are
required to familiarise themselves with the
guidance issued by the Charity Commission on
public benefit. We are developing policies to
ensure that new trustees receive this guidance
as part of their induction process, and to
review annually these policies. Our secretary
trustee, Dr Roger Mitchell, ensures good
governance practice is followed at all times.
In the reporting period we welcomed one new
trustee, Professor Martin Doel CBE, who is also
our new Chair. At our Board’s annual strategy
away day, we review the organisation’s goals,
including ensuring public benefit of the
activities we undertake.|
|---|---|---|---|
## **Additional information (optional)**
You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:
||SORP reference||
|---|---|---|
|Policy on grant making|Para 1.38|In 2023/24 Natural Cambridgeshire did not
make any grants on its own account. We are
developing a policy on grant making to cover
anticipated grant giving in 2024/25.|
|Policy on social investment
including program related
investment|Para 1.38|n/a|
|Contribution made by
volunteers|Para 1.38|Much of the work of Natural Cambridgeshire to
date has been achieved by and through
volunteers, primarily trustees and advisors, all
of whose time, dedication and commitment is
much appreciated.
While we are not a direct delivery organisation,
and therefore not in the business of mobilising
conservation volunteers ourselves, it is
anticipated that future grantees will mobilise
the efforts of volunteers in their improvements
to green spaces within parishes, urban
communities and on other nature sites. We will
seek to ensure these efforts are fully
acknowledged and celebrated.|
|Other|||
## **Achievements and Performance**
SORP reference
||Summary of the main
achievements of the charity,
identifying the difference the
charity’s work has made to the
circumstances of its
beneficiaries and any wider
benefits to society as a whole.|Para 1.20|• Drawing on our extensive networks across
the county and our ability to convene and
facilitate broad stakeholder groups, we
worked with Cambridgeshire County
Council to convene a stakeholder group for
a visioning workshop for the Local Nature
Recovery Strategy in May 2023, from which
emerged the significance of the Strategy to
be instrumental in developing a new
narrative for Cambridgeshire and
Peterborough in the face of climate and
other environmental pressures, with
particular reference to the fragility of our
lowland peat soils, and the future viability
of agriculture for our area and it’s role in
national food security.
• The Policy and Planning Forum, which is the
county-wide grouping which we convene
for local authority ecology and planning
officers, environmental charities, farmer
representatives and community
organisations to engage with the themes of:
biodiversity, and its centrality to the future
health and prosperity of communities
across the county, and biodiversity net gain
morphed to become the development
group for the LNRS and met quarterly.
• We continued to build momentum around
the six identified priority landscapes for
investment in nature recovery, the
associated benefits for human health and
wellbeing and other eco-system services,
via individual LRNS preparedness meetings.
• In relation to the above, we have also
specifically worked with Natural England
and Cambridgeshire County Council to
familiarise district and city authorities and
parish councils, NGOs, farmers and other
landowners with the concept of Local
Nature Recovery Strategies, including the
development of Local Nature Recovery
Networks for their areas, giving
presentations to Council members across
the area.
• We undertook an audit and gap analysis
of farmer clusters, and worked with
farmer representatives, including the
NFU, CLA, FWAG East, and other key
landowners and farm cluster facilitators,
to seek their input and speak to the
benefits of LNRS to agriculture.
• In the spring of 2024, we developed a new
relationship with Cambridgeshire Libraries
Service, and engaged the public in
conversations about Nature Recovery at
Libraryevents,and also at the Cambridge|
|---|---|---|---|
Imaginarium held on the lawn at Kings College, Cambridge in March 2024, which attracted over 2000 visitors. • We identified a partner, Cambridgeshire Community Foundation, through which to disburse Fund for Nature monies to Communities via a small grants scheme. This included setting-up on online application form, launching the first call for applications, convening an awards panel and identifying the first beneficiary projects aimed to bring benefits to both people and nature. A second call for projects was also launched. • Working with legal advisors we developed funding agreements for disbursement of Nature Fund monies for landscape projects. • Regular quarterly online expert briefings were held (Partnership Forum) for the broader nature community on specialist subject areas relating to nature, biodiversity and landscape improvements. • We collated and emailed a weekly news digest of the latest international, national and local research, news and events relating the state of nature and the pressures of climate change to over 700 contacts across the county. • We continued to our membership of the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Climate Programme Board and input into the development of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Climate Action Plan. • We strengthened strategic relations with neighbouring Local Nature Partnerships, including signing letters to Ministers to lobby for funding to support nature recovery activities, participated in strategic projects including the Fenland Water Partnership that is developing the new Fens Reservoir National Infrastructure project, Fens 2100+, the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Landscape Restoration and Fenland SOIL. We also championed water for agriculture within key strategic discussions, including with the EA, Ofwat, Anglian Water and Cambridge Water. • We recruited and welcomed a new Chair to our Board, to galvanise and support the organisation as we continue to champion our doubling nature vision, and ensure nature considerations remain at the heart of decision-making across the county.
**Additional information (optional)**
You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:
|Achievements against
objectives set|Para 1.41|See attached reports|
|---|---|---|
|Performance of fundraising
activities against objectives set|Para 1.41||
|Investment performance
against objectives|Para 1.41||
|Other|||
## **Financial Review**
|Review of the charity’s
financial position at the end of
the period|Para 1.21|During the year the financial position was
strengthened with the agreement to fund our
running costs over three years (now in its
second year) from the Cambridgeshire and
Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA),
instead of the annual grants from several local
authorities in the county. This supported an
increase in policy staff time, which in turn led
to further policy activities, including: an
agreement with CPCA to launch an investment
fund to support projects for nature, where the
funds will be held and administered through
the CPCA, but support costs will be run through
Natural Cambridgeshire: and also via a
Memorandum of Understanding with
Cambridgeshire County Council specifically for
strategic assistance in developing the Local
Nature Recovery Strategy for Cambridgeshire
and Peterborough. As a result, we increased
our income to £103,653 (£80,880 in 2022/23)
and increased our expenses to £91,414
(£62,368 in 2022/23), producing a surplus of
£12,238 (£18,511 in 2022/23). Year-end
reserves were £55,675 (£43,436 in 2022/23).
Cash balances at year end were £71,209
(£58,274 in 2022/23).|
|---|---|---|
|Statement explaining the
policy for holding reserves
stating why they are held|Para 1.22|Our reserves policy is based on a “rundown
horizon” of around 4 months to cover
outstanding event costs and three months’
salary costs. The current minimum reserves
policycontinues to stand at £30,000.|
|Amount of reserves held|Para 1.22|£55,675|
|Reasons for holding zero
reserves|Para 1.22|N/A|
|Details of fund materially in
deficit|Para 1.24|N/A|
|Explanation of any
uncertainties about the charity
continuingas agoingconcern|Para 1.23|At present time, the charity’s running costs
depend on gaining grants and contracts from
local authorities to continue its work.|
|**Additional information (optional)**
You maychoose to include further statements where relevant about:|**Additional information (optional)**
You maychoose to include further statements where relevant about:|**Additional information (optional)**
You maychoose to include further statements where relevant about:|
|---|---|---|
|The charity’s principal sources
of funds (including any
fundraising)|Para 1.47|Local Authorities, including Cambridgeshire and
Peterborough Combined Authority
Environmental charities
One corporate donor|
|Investment policy and
objectives including any social
investment policy adopted|Para 1.46|N/A|
|A description of the principal
risks facing the charity|Para 1.46|• Failure to attract income for ongoing
running costs.
• Reputational risk.
• Initiating projects which are not fully
funded.
• Key staff – for the reporting period the
organisation employed two part-time
officers. While at the time of writing the
two part-time officers equate to 1.6 FTE,
the workload remains considerable.|
|Other|||
**Structure, Governance and Management**
|Description of charity’s trusts:|||
|---|---|---|
|Type of governing document
(trust deed, royal charter)|Para 1.25|The charity’s governing document is its
constitution, which sets out how it will operate
as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation
(Foundation Model).|
|How is the charity constituted?
(e.g unincorporated
association,CIO)|Para 1.25|The charity is constituted as a Charitable
Incorporated Organisation.|
|Trustee selection methods
including details of any
constitutional provisions e.g.
election to post or name of any
person or body entitled to
appoint one or more trustees|Para 1.25|In this, the CIO’s third full year, one new
trustee, who is also our new Chair was
appointed. Trustee appointments are made on
the basis of the skills, knowledge and subject
matter expertise they are able to bring to the
organisation, and/or the body entitled to
nominate a representative to the trustee
board, as specified in our constitution.
The appointment of the new chair followed a
national public advertisement followed by
standard recruitment practices of shortlist,
panel interview, recommendation to board,
and appointment.|
## **Additional information (optional)**
You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:
|Policies and procedures
adopted for the induction and
training of trustees|Para 1.51|Trustees when they are appointed are
requested to familiarise themselves with the
Charity Commission’s guidance:
Charity trustee: what’s involved
Conflicts of interest: a guide for charity
trustees
For Local Authority nominees:
Councillors’guide: to a council’s role as charity
trustee
Depending on an individual trustees skills,
knowledge and experience, briefings and
introductory meetings may be provided to fill
any knowledge gaps and to bring them up to
speed with the organisation’s business.|
|---|---|---|
|The charity’s organisational
structure and any wider
network with which the charity
works|Para 1.51|The generosity of local authorities and the
support of partner organisations has enabled
the trustees to retain one part-time co-
ordinator (0.8 FTE) who provides secretariat
support to facilitate the efficient running of the
organisation and its meetings, in addition to
running some activities and programmes, and
now a part-time director (0.6 FTE, moved to 0.8
FTE from January 2024).
The day-to-day business operations are
overseen by an Operations & Finance sub-
committee of the trustee board that report
into the Board, and programmes are steered by
a working groups, made up of relevant trustees
and officers,which also report to the Board.|
|||While the charity itself is a convenor and
facilitator of networks and seen as a ‘key
nexus’ for the environment sector in
Cambridgeshire, it is also active in many other
networks within the county, including the
University of Cambridge’s Centre for Landscape
Regeneration, the Steering Group for the
development of a Local Nature Recovery
Strategy for the area, a member of the
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Climate
Programme Board, and Water Resources East.|
|---|---|---|
|Relationship with any related
parties|Para 1.51|Nene Park Trust employ the two Natural
Cambridgeshire officers on behalf of
Natural Cambridgeshire and provide human
resources, payroll and book-keeping
services.|
|Other||See ‘Natural Cambridgeshire - Report on
Activities 2023/24’ and ‘Actions for Nature Report’|
## **Reference and Administrative details**
|Charityname|Natural Cambridgeshire|
|---|---|
|Other name the charityuses|N/A|
|Registered charitynumber|1193040|
|Charity’s principal address|For the reporting period the charity’s principal address was:
c/o Nene Park Trust
Ham Farm House
Ham Lane
Peterborough
PE2 5UU|
**Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity**
|1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
15
16|**Trustee name**|**Office (if any)**|**Dates acted if not for**
**whole year**|**Name of person (or body)**
**entitled to appoint trustee**
**(if any)**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||Richard Astle|Trustee||Business Sector|
||Martin Baker|||Environmental Charity|
||Matthew Bullock|Treasurer||Independent|
||Matthew Bradbury|Vice-Chair|Absent through serious
illness from January
2023, returned February
2024.|Country Park|
||Major Tim
Breitmeyer DL|Chair (Interim)|From 31 March 2023 to
26 June 2023, reverting
to trustee upon the
appointment of Martin
Doel as a trustee and
Chair.|National Farmers Union/
County Landowners
Association|
||Rebecca Britton|Vice-Chair
(Interim)|Standing in and
providing cover for
Matthew Bradbury
during his period of
absence and recovery
from January 2023 to
present.|Business Sector|
||Tom Clarke||Resigned March 2024|Independent|
||Prof Martin Doel CBE|Chair|Appointed 27 June 2023|Independent|
||Cllr Pippa Heylings|||Local Authority|
||Professor Peter
Landshoff|||Independent/Partnership
Forum|
||Dr Roger Mitchell|Secretary||Independent/Partnership
Forum|
||Rachel Steward|||Independent|
||John Torlesse|||Defra Agency|
||Hannah Phillips||Resigned December
2023|Environmental Charity|
||Rob Wise|||National Farmers Union/
Country Landowners
Association|
Corporate trustees – names of the directors at the date the report was approved
**Director name** None
Name of trustees holding title to property belonging to the charity
|**Trustee name**|**Dates acted if not for whole**
**year**||
|---|---|---|
|None|||
|**Funds held as custodian trustees on behalf of others**|**Funds held as custodian trustees on behalf of others**|
|---|---|
|Description of the assets held
in this capacity|None|
|Name and objects of the
charity on whose behalf the
assets are held and how this
falls within the custodian
charity’s objects|N/A|
|Details of arrangements for
safe custody and segregation
of such assets from the
charity’s own assets|N/A|
## **Additional information (optional)**
## **Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)**
|**Type of**
**adviser**|**Name**
**Address**|**Name**
**Address**|
|---|---|---|
||Adrian Cannard|Strategic Planning Manager, Cambridgeshire & Peterborough
Combined Authority, 2nd Floor, Pathfinder House, St Mary's
Street, Huntingdon, PE29 3TN|
||James Littlewood|CEO, Cambridge Past Present & Future,Wandlebury Ring, Gog
Magog Hills, Babraham, Cambridge CB22 3AE|
||||
||||
## **Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)**
Pamela Abbott and Helen Dye
## **Exemptions from disclosure**
Reason for non-disclosure of key personnel details
N/A
## **Other optional information**
None
## **Declarations**
**The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.**
**Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees**
**Signature(s) Full name(s)** Dr Roger Mitchell **Position (eg Secretary, Chair, etc)** Trustee/Secretary 23[rd] January 2025 **Date**
## **Independent examiner's report on the accounts**
## **Section A**
**Independent Examiner’s Report**
## **Report to the trustees**
Charity Name Natural Cambridgeshire
**On accounts for the year** 31 March 2024 **Charity no** 1193040 **ended (if any) Set out on pages** 1 to 16 (remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets)
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31 March 2024.
**Responsibilities and** As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the **basis of report** accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).
I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
**Independent** [The charity’s gross income exceeded £250,000 and I am qualified to **examiner's statement** undertake the examination by being a qualified member of [insert name of applicable listed body]]. _Delete_ [ ] _if not applicable._
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination (other than that disclosed below *) which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:
- the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or
- the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or
- the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair’ view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
**Signed: Date:** 17/07/2024 **Name:** Rebecca Coles **Relevant professional** ACCA **qualification(s) or body (if any):**
1
**Oct 2018**
**IER**
**Address:** Newton Hall, Town Street, Newton, Cambridge, CB22 7ZE
**Section B**
## **Disclosure**
Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).
**Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose** .
2
**Oct 2018**
**IER**
## Consolidated Revenue Account
## Natural Cambridgeshire For the year ended 31 March 2024
|Natural Cambridgeshire
For the year ended 31 March 2024|||
|---|---|---|
||2024|2023|
|Turnover|||
|Charity & Corporate Donations (unrestricted)|4,500.00|5,500.00|
|Local Authority Grants (unrestricted)|97,500.00|70,000.00|
|Project Grants (Restricted)|1,652.72|5,379.50|
|Total Turnover|103,652.72|80,879.50|
|Cost of Sales|||
|Projects - Restricted|1,652.72|3,000.00|
|Total Cost of Sales|1,652.72|3,000.00|
|Gross Profit|102,000.00|77,879.50|
|Administrative Costs|||
|Admin Costs (Communities Fund)|7,000.00|-|
|Advertising|19.99|540.00|
|Expenses - Mileage Claims|52.20|-|
|Expenses - Travel & Subsistence|285.00|-|
|Expenses - U.K. Entertainment|210.00|234.00|
|Finance - Bank Charges|240.00|230.00|
|Hall Hire & Catering|1,269.58|-|
|Office Costs - Computer/Software/Website|34.99|-|
|Office Costs - HD & PA Expenses|3,138.21|-|
|Office Costs - HD Laptop|213.85|2,020.46|
|Office Costs - HD Telephone|243.13|-|
|Office Costs - Supplies|520.00|-|
|Other Overheads - Insurance|251.12|700.39|
|Other Overheads - Magazine & Book Subscriptions|19.99|149.00|
|Professionals - Accountancy Fees|2,071.20|1,680.00|
|Salary Costs - Gross Wages & NI|73,768.90|53,747.11|
|Westfield Health|422.88|67.12|
|Total Administrative Costs|89,761.04|59,368.08|
|Operating Profit|12,238.96|18,511.42|
|Profit on Ordinary Activities Before Taxation|12,238.96|18,511.42|
|Profit after Taxation|12,238.96|18,511.42|
Profit and Loss Natural Cambridgeshire 17 Jul 2024
## Balance Sheet
## Natural Cambridgeshire As at 31 March 2024
|Natural Cambridgeshire
As at 31 March 2024||
|---|---|
||31 MAR 2024|
|Current Assets||
|Cash at bank and in hand||
|Natural Cambridgeshire|71,209.25|
|Total Cash at bank and in hand|71,209.25|
|Accounts Receivable|16,353.60|
|Prepayments|445.59|
|Total Current Assets|88,008.44|
|Creditors: amounts fallingdue within oneyear||
|Accounts Payable|16,815.76|
|Accruals|7,000.00|
|Accruals - Audit Fee|420.00|
|Deferred Income (National Lottery)|8,097.28|
|Total Creditors: amounts falling due within one year|32,333.04|
|Net Current Assets (Liabilities)|55,675.40|
|Total Assets less Current Liabilities|55,675.40|
|Net Assets|55,675.40|
|Capital and Reserves||
|Current Year Earnings|12,238.96|
|Profit and Loss Account|43,436.44|
|Total Capital and Reserves|55,675.40|
Balance Sheet Natural Cambridgeshire 17 Jul 2024
NOVEMBER 2024
## **1. Introduction**
The preparation of a Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) has exercised many of the organisations in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, with Natural Cambridgeshire helping the County Council in taking a lead. This has included working with farmer representatives, among them the National Farmers Union (NFU), the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG East), and other key landowners and farm cluster facilitators, to seek their input and make them aware of the benefits of LNRS to agriculture.
Another main provision of the 2021 Environment Act, that most developments should provide at least 10% Biodiversity Net Gain, has also been getting under way. LNRS and BNG have been the main discussion items in the quarterly Natural Environment Policy and Planning Forum, which Natural Cambridgeshire organises in partnership with the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA) and the County Council, and which exposes officers of our local authority to experts in nature and in climate change.
Various strategic projects are under way across the county, including the Fenland Water Partnership that is developing the new Fens Reservoir National Infrastructure project, Fens 2100+, the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Landscape Regeneration and Fenland SOIL.
There have been discussions with the water sector and Defra, to assist in resolving the water scarcity issues faced by our county. This included making the case for agricultural supply, and ensuring the future of the Fenland peat soils.
The quarterly Natural Cambridgeshire Partnership Forum has continued to brief the community on specialist subject areas relating to nature, biodiversity and landscape improvements. And a weekly news digest of the latest international, national and local research, news and events relating the state of nature and the pressures of climate change is emailed to some 700 contacts across the county.
Six priority landscape areas have been identified to give a focus to the strategy to double nature in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, and Section 2 of this report describes recent activities in these areas.
**2**
## **2. The Priority Landscapes**
The following six landscapes areas were chosen because of their unique ecological and geographic features, and their intrinsic value to the identity and natural heritage of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough landscape.
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Landscapes Key
Cambridge Nature Network
West Cambridgeshire Hundreds
Great Ouse Valley
Connected Fens - Great Fen
Connected Fens - Wicken Fen Vision
Connected Fens - Ouse Washes
Connected Fens - Nene Washes
John Clare Country
Nene Valley
Cambs & Pboro boundary
© Crown copyright and database rights 2021 OS 100023205. Use of this
data is subject to terms and conditions.
https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/documents/licensing/public-sector-
viewing-terms.pdf
**----- End of picture text -----**
The **Cambridge Nature Network:** The partnership continues to meet to co-ordinate actions, projects and to share information and knowledge.
The East Cambridge Farmer Cluster has grown and linked up with the Granta Farmers group to form a group with 20-30 members. A successful application to the Defra Facilitation Fund will
**3**
support training and knowledge sharing activities for the farmers over the next three years. The cluster has allowed landowners to reconnect or to meet new farmers and to share knowledge. Additional funding has been sought for specialist equipment to better support regenerative farming across multiple farms. In addition to the above, Natural England’s Nature Recovery programme has supported a project to identify those species priorities for the cluster area that the farmers could best support, along with the actions required at landscape-scale and across farm boundaries.
A new project to help nature and climate in Cambridge started in autumn 2024 thanks to a £495,000 grant award from The National Lottery Community Fund’s Climate Action Fund. The River Cam CAN (Climate Action through Nature) Project will support communities near the river to work on initiatives that will benefit them and the environment. The two and a half year project aims to raise awareness of the challenges faced by the River Cam and inspire and support people to take action to help. The project will be delivered by a partnership of local organisations including Abbey People, Cambridge City Council, Cambridge Past, Present & Future, CoFarm and Water Sensitive Cambridge. They will be supported by the national charity Climate Outreach. Cambridge Past, Present & Future are the lead partner and have employed a new River Cam CAN Officer, who is also supporting the wider nature network. The Nature Network partnership organised a successful Cambridge Nature Festival in June, with over 120 events taking place.
The **Connected Fens:** the Ouse Washes Landscape Recovery project has commenced bringing together a group of farmers and landowners adjacent to the Ouse Washes, including the conservation partners that own the majority of the Ouse Washes, namely the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) and the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire (WT BCN). The RSPB is co-ordinating delivery of the project over two years, with the main focus on what the participating farmers might do to restore nature and farm more sustainably on their land. Baseline surveys have been undertaken and opportunities for nature recovery across all participating farms are being refined. These will then be subject to business planning to
**4**
identify those best suited to public and private funding and thus able to support landscape-scale nature recovery and the farm businesses.
The **John Clare Countryside** partnership continues to meet regularly to co-ordinate action whether on landscape nature recovery, parish nature recovery or access enhancements. The Parish Clusters are active and are undertaking small-scale nature projects in and around the villages, involving active groups of local volunteers, in line with their Parish Nature Recovery Plans.
Three major Estates (Milton, Burghley and Walcot) have come together with the Langdyke Countryside Trust, Nene Park Trust and the Wildlife Trust BCN to start to put together a Landscape Recovery project. This will include both the John Clare Countryside and the Nene Valley upstream of Peterborough, due to the overlap in landowners and conservation partners across both priority landscapes. A high-level vision for nature has been created and this has been presented with partners across Peterborough. The landowners are waiting for publication of the details of Round 3 of the national Landscape Recovery Scheme which will help determine the next steps.
**Great Ouse Valley:** The Wildlife Trust BCN is working with landowners at Houghton and Holywell to plan and implement species-rich floodplain meadow restoration projects. At Houghton a suitable wildflower seed mix will be added to parts of a large meadow, following ground preparation. It is hoped the wildflower seed will successfully germinate and become established over the next year or two with appropriate management. The site will be monitored to record progress. A detailed plan has also been prepared for meadow restoration at Holywell, and this farm is one of the participating farms in the Ouse Washes Landscape Recovery project.
FWAG East has been working with the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust drawing up plans for wetland creation in the Ouse valley in the hopes of obtaining suitable funding.
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**Nene Valley:** The Nene Park Trust land within the Nene Valley will also form part of the emerging landscape recovery plans for the countryside west of Peterborough _(_ see _John Clare Countryside_ page 5). Further details of some of the current actions are set out below under the Nene Park Trust section.
The **West Cambridgeshire Hundreds** farmers got together several times through the year to attend workshops, a walk and the AGM, at which five partners were present in addition to landowners. Workshops covered the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) grey partridge project, the LNRS for Cambridgeshire, results from the collaboration with the universities of Cambridge and Sheffield on the Healthy Soils, Healthy Food, Healthy People project (with interesting comparisons of biodiversity on the four farms following regenerative agriculture techniques with that on conventional farms), and applying for the Sustainable Farming Incentive. The summer walk took place on a member’s farm with a difference: free range hens (and truly free range) and a biodigester.
## **3. Local Authorities**
**Cambridge City Council** continues to deliver its Biodiversity Strategy and commitment to the Cambridge Nature Network through the planning process, site habitat management, project delivery and community engagement.
Two great crested newt breeding ponds have been restored at Bar Hill crematorium, monitoring by Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Amphibian and Reptile Group (CPARG) shows the population continues to thrive.
Local Nature Reserve volunteers undertook 500 metres of bank and in-channel habitat restoration along Coldham’s Brook, including placement of brushwood bundles, flow deflectors and aquatic and marginal planting.
Working with Trees are Good, funding was secured from Trees for Cities to plant fruit trees and over 100 metres of native hedgerow as part of the Hedges for King’s Hedges project, with
further park planting planned in autumn 2024, funded via
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the Council’s Environmental Improvement Program.
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_**Community volunteers with the support of the Council’s Tree Team took part in a fruit grafting and maintenance workshop and native hedge-planting activities in autumn 2024 as part of the Hedges for King’s Hedges Project.**_
_Credit: Cambridge City Council_
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700m[2] of perennial flower rich meadow turf has been installed around Parkside Pool as part of the Council’s ambition to increase biodiversity on its more formal parks and open spaces and to provide pollinator ‘stepping stones’ through the urban environment.
The successful trial of creating Open Habitat Mosaics at Bramblefield’s Local Nature Reserve (LNR) continues with three new mounds of differing substrates being monitored by undergraduates from the University of Cambridge.
Enabling cattle to graze the Newmarket Road section of Coldham’s Common for the first time in many years to improve grassland condition, the NoFence Collar trial continues. This technology has the potential to target conservation grazing on key commons sites and prevent damage to watercourses without the use of new fencing.
47 hectares of Hobson’s Park have been designated as one of the largest new County Wildlife Sites within the City, primarily for breeding birds, with water rail confirmed breeding for the first time this year. This relatively new park has been secured through nearby development and the new designation recognises the importance of the diverse habitats that have been created and maintained on former farmland.
Woodland management plans have been consulted upon for Byron’s Pool and Nine Wells LNRs with a view for phased delivery over the next few years to increase woodland habitat diversity.
Over 50 long-lasting woodcrete bird and bat boxes have been installed in parks across the City and
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at least 11 pairs of swifts are thought to have nested at Logan’s Meadow Swift Tower this year.
Working with partners the Council hosted and delivered several community events in June 2023 as part of the Cambridge Nature Festival. A series of walks and workshops were also held as part of the DiversiTree Project, to identify and manage ‘veteran’ willow trees along the riverbanks. These projects also incorporate the Council’s work to engage under-represented local people and communities, funded by the National Lottery River Cam CAN partnership grant.
Operations supervisors and operatives have attended training with the Wildlife Trust and University Head gardeners to increase their understanding and skills on grassland and watercourse management to enhance biodiversity across the Council’s estate.
## The **Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined**
**Authority** (CPCA) has protecting and enhancing nature and the natural environment as a core priority to be delivered through the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Climate Action Plan.
Funding is provided across the region for locally driven projects that help add to biodiversity and mitigate the impact of climate change. Natural Cambridgeshire and Fenland SOIL continue to receive capacity funding from the Combined Authority to deliver on the priorities set out in the Climate Action Plan.
Core funding has also continued this year for Huntingdonshire District Council’s Biodiversity for All programme and Natural Cambridgeshire’s Fund for Nature. Funding has also been secured for projects that will be commencing over the next year including the Cambridge Chalk Streams and Logan Meadows projects along with funding for all seven authorities to enable them to meet the Biodiversity Net Gain obligations to carry out audits and to produce biodiversity management plans for their area. The culmination of these projects supports the area’s Doubling Nature ambitions, and more details are described in other partners’ updates.
The CPCA is the responsible authority for the Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) and has commissioned Cambridgeshire County Council to lead the work with the support of Natural Cambridgeshire. A major programme of stakeholder engagement is taking place with consultants now undertaking work on
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mapping habitats as part of the evidence base. Work will continue on the preparation of the LRNS in 2025.
The CPCA has commissioned an area-wide Infrastructure Delivery Framework looking at barriers to sustainable growth, including natural infrastructure and water. This report sets out recommendations to tackle the biodiversity crisis, to enhance green infrastructure and to protect and to enhance the environment, which the Authority will consider.
A new Climate Opportunity Fund will be launched which will invite bids for schemes to protect against or ease the effects of climate change with funding to be awarded by March 2025. Local authorities, parish councils and community organisations amongst others will be encouraged to submit bids. Successful bids will be innovative, delivering on the priorities of the Climate Action Plan across individual communities by significantly cutting carbon emissions and offering other tangible benefits to the environment.
**Cambridgeshire County Council** is working to improve nature not only through actions on its own landholdings but across Cambridgeshire directly by working with partners. This is achieved through formal partnerships with Natural Cambridgeshire for joint working and a Service Level Agreement with Fenland District Council to provide biodiversity and ecology services to their planners, covering ecology advice on applications and the application of Biodiversity Net Gain.
The Council’s Climate Change and Environment Strategy continues to evolve and drive actions to make best use of its available assets and resources. Two key commitments are to improve biodiversity across the Council’s estate by 2030, and to understand and grow Natural Capital accounting to benefit people and nature by 2025 including integrating this into the delivery of Council functions by 2030.
The Council has committed to being net zero by 2030 for its fleet and utilities, and to halve emissions from everything else by 2030 (compared to 2018/19). This year resources were committed to improve understanding of the Council’s carbon baseline and to identity where changes and improvements can be made to reach these targets. This includes nature-based solutions and the
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use of natural assets, whether that is to improve the amount of carbon assets sequester or to generally grow its natural capital.
A workstream for ‘Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services’ has been established to develop actions in this area and to ensure multiple outcomes are achieved where possible. This has brought the Council’s work on natural flood risk management (NFM), parks and greenspaces, community nature, woodland creation and local heritage listing into a single programme. Activities under this workstream will form the basis of understanding the Council’s natural capital account, drawing on work already done for the Future Parks Accelerator, with wider net-zero work, including the biodiversity and trees audit and that planned for the LNRS. It is aimed to have a baseline for this by 2025.
An audit of the council’s non-agricultural lands and estates has been completed, assessing their current state of nature conservation against the Defra metric. This is now helping with the writing of a Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan that identifies opportunities for targeting key areas for improving biodiversity across the Council’s estate by 2030.
A Tree and Woodland Strategy is nearing completion that includes a tree canopy mapping exercise that shows 10% canopy cover across the whole of the Council’s landholdings. It has also helped with identifying opportunity areas for both improved management and new planting. The strategy will also enable an evidence-based target related to tree and hedgerow planting to be established. It is anticipated that the Woodland Creation Accelerator Fund will soon be underway. Mapping of trees and hedgerows on the Council’s estates has been acquired and is being assessed to understand their current and possible future contributions to net zero ambitions.
Cambridgeshire County Council has committed to explore opportunities for nature-based solutions for natural flood risk management across Cambridgeshire. Further to the Environment Agency’s Natural Flood Management (NFM) Pilot Study, work is ongoing to identify locations across the county where NFM could be incorporated into the landscape to manage flood risk, enhance biodiversity and contribute to research on a national scale as to the effectiveness of different measures. In addition, the Council is supporting local community groups to design and deliver their own NFM solutions. One example is Alconbury where the local flood group is building on the work already
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undertaken by the Environment Agency to further expand the network of NFM features upstream of the Alconbury Brook. In addition to rural NFM, we are also working with partners (including Anglian Water) to deliver small scale urban NFM in market towns. In addition to reducing the risk of flooding, these features can provide localised recharge of aquifers, an amenity space for residents and a contribution towards a reduction in urban heating effects.
The Highways Maintenance Green Infrastructure Team is providing leadership to inform the ways in which highway grass verges, hedges, shrubs and trees are managed and maintained. The new Team reflects the importance of our highways green infrastructure in achieving nature recovery as part of the climate crisis response.
Continued participation in ‘No Mow May’ supports biodiversity through not cutting grass verges on county nature reserves at this key time for the benefit of pollinating plants and insects. When cutting the grass during the rest of the year there are specific management plans for all sites with rare and protected species.
In collaboration with the CPCA as the ‘Responsible Authority’, Natural England and Natural Cambridgeshire, the County Council is in the process of developing our LNRS, which will be evidencebased, and is taking a locally-led and collaborative approach. The area has already adopted a ‘Doubling Nature’ ambition that responds to the existing deficit of rich wildlife areas across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, and the national biodiversity decline.
The LNRS process officially started in June 2023 since when the Council has been working closely with Natural England, Natural Cambridgeshire, the CPCA and the District and City Councils (who are formally recognised as ‘Supporting Authorities’), to create habitat maps that identify existing core areas, and then to identify areas where new habitat can be created. The LNRS draft document when it is prepared will go out for public consultation, with a view to the Stategy being adopted in late 2025.
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**East Cambridgeshire District Council** (ECDC) has launched a broad campaign to Bring Back Nature. Whether on its own land or by supporting others, the Council wants to see nature returning across the district.
Over the past year, over 25 Pride of Place grants have been handed out to community groups for building ponds, planting hedgerows, installing bird and bat boxes, sowing wildflower seeds and much more.
_**East Cambridgeshire’s ‘Bring Back Nature’ campaign provides a local focus for the Council’s commitment to nature recovery.**_
_Credit: East Cambridgeshire District Council_
## _**Mepal Planting Day, March 2024**_
_Credit: Fiona Wynn_
One such project, in Mepal, delivered a species-rich hedge and tree area, with 40 people volunteering from the community to attend the initial Planting Party in March 2024. This in turn has led to a new volunteer group being set up to help nature in Mepal, undertaking projects such as planting more trees and over 600 native bulbs.
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The Council’s long-term commitment to help hedgehogs has progressed, including a competition involving the free giveaway of ten hedgehog houses. The has also included what is believed to be a UK first Hedgehog Recovery Supplementary Planning Document (September 2024), meaning developers must now take extra steps to help protect hedgehogs and create new hedgehog friendly habitats as part of new development schemes.
This year the Council was delighted to announce its first registered Biodiversity Gain Site (or ‘habitat bank’) located near Pymoor and known as Oxwillow. They are also actively working with other landowners that are interested in establishing their own Biodiversity Gain Sites.
Coming up, the Council has committed to establishing biodiversity management plans for all its major land holdings by summer 2025, it is looking to install a butterfly bank in one of its public parks and is seeking to create a new public woodland in Bottisham. All of these activities, and more, will help turn the tide and Bring Back Nature to East Cambridgeshire.
**Fenland District Council** (FDC) has continued to work with partners to encourage members of the community to get involved with nature recovery. It actively supports seventeen Street Pride groups and a number of In Bloom and Friends groups in the district, who work hard to improve the local street scene, open spaces and heritage sites, and to promote environmental education. Events included taking part in The Big Help Out with the National Trust, with litter picks to support nature and wildlife species identification.
In Whittlesey, the Town Council along with a local community group have transformed a featureless Council-owned area of open land in Yarwells Headland into an attractive pocket park and community woodland. Around 135 trees sponsored by local individuals and businesses have created a Platinum Jubilee Wood in memory of the late Queen Elizabeth. This includes fruit trees and a raised herb garden which can be harvested by local people, a wildflower meadow with mown pathways, as well as professionally managed beehives. It is run and maintained by 14 dedicated volunteers and continues to evolve with, for example, new bins, benches, information boards and dedicated tree plaques.
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_**QEII Jubilee Wood located at the end of Yarwells Headlands, Whittlesey is a peaceful area, where the public can walk, take their dogs and relax in a safe area.**_
_**While this community woodland and pocket park was opened in August 2022, work continues to engage the community and plant up the site with further additions.**_
_Credit: Fenland District Council_
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In Coates, both the local primary school and church have established nature improvement projects on sites within the village.
In October 2024, the Council appointed a new Environmental Projects officer to help deliver successful community engagement projects across the district.
Since the location of the proposed Fens Reservoir just north of Chatteris was announced by Anglian Water and Cambridge Water in 2022, FDC has continued to work with the proponents and other stakeholders on the master planning for the project. The Fens Reservoir is identified as a Priority Area within Fenland’s Interim Nature Recovery Strategy (along with the Nene Washes and Ouse Washes). The proposal should provide an exciting opportunity with many potential benefits including for substantial biodiversity enhancements alongside the adjacent Forty Foot and Sixteen Foot Drains to assist in realising (in line with the Lawton Principles), better connections between the Priority Areas.
**Huntingdonshire District Council** (HDC) is committed to creating a sustainable and thriving environment, as reflected in its newly adopted Corporate Plan. Central to this plan is the key priority of “Creating a better Huntingdonshire for future generations,” focusing on empowering communities to take action for biodiversity and fostering green skills development. In line with this, HDC is delivering a Huntingdonshire Plan for Nature and actively contributing to the area-wide Local Nature Recovery Strategy.
Recognising the urgency of environmental challenges, HDC formally declared a Climate Crisis and Ecological Emergency in February 2023. Since then, the Council has intensified its efforts to protect and restore biodiversity through its flagship Biodiversity for All project. This initiative, developed in partnership with the CPCA, is pivotal in HDC’s Climate Strategy. Through a combination of community engagement, strategic partnerships and volunteers, and guided by data and evidence, the project aims to enhance biodiversity across the district by conducting thorough ecological audits and identifying priority habitats.
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One of the project’s key achievements has been the commissioning of ecological audits for strategic parks and open spaces throughout the district. These audits have informed a comprehensive programme of works focusing on ecological restoration in areas of highest need. Major habitat enhancement projects will begin this winter in two key sites, Priory Park in St Neots and Hill Rise Park in St Ives, ensuring these areas become biodiversity-rich natural spaces for future generations.
_**Training volunteers to undertake biodiversity surveys forms part of the Council’s longer term objectives to support skills development for nature recovery activities within the community. Here volunteers are being trained by a gradute ecologist to conduct biodiversity surveys at Hinchingbrooke Country Park, Huntingdon.**_
_Credit: Nicholas Massey-Vernon_
To further engage the community in this mission, HDC has launched the _Biodiversity Community Grant Scheme_ , which supports local groups in improving biodiversity. Grant applicants receive ecological audits from the Council’s newly appointed Graduate Ecologists, ensuring that all projects are rooted in sound scientific principles. In its first phase, eight sites have already been awarded funding to carry out the ecological improvements identified, with more projects following in the second round.
Beyond these initiatives, HDC has partnered with Groundwork UK to provide training and employment opportunities for job seekers, allowing participants to gain skills and qualifications while contributing to ecological enhancements on Council-
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owned land. This program supports individual employability and strengthens the district’s capacity to maintain and improve its natural habitats.
_**In addition to other measures, the Council, through its Alternative Land Management (ALM) approach has increased the District’s floral meadows (currently 1.4 hectares**_
_Credit: Cllr Simone_
Community involvement is at the heart of HDC’s approach to nature conservation. The Council is working with residents to develop a district-wide citizen science program, in partnership with iNaturalist. This platform is not just a tool for identifying and monitoring local species, but a means of empowering residents to be active participants in protecting and enhancing biodiversity in Huntingdonshire. By engaging the community in this way, HDC is fostering a collective effort to support nature recovery across the district and highlighting the crucial role each individual plays in this collective effort.
In October 2024, HDC took another significant step forward by formally recognising ten priority natural landscapes across the district. This designation follows extensive work by the Wildlife Trust BCN, commissioned by HDC, to identify key areas for biodiversity action. These landscapes will inform future planning policy and ensure that HDC’s contribution to the Local Nature Recovery Strategy is impactful and sustainable.
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Complementing these efforts, HDC has continued to advance its _Alternative Land Management Approach_ (ALM) throughout 2024. By collaborating with Town and Parish Councils, HDC has transformed areas of Council-owned land by allowing grass to grow to meadow grass and cutting once a year to promote biodiversity. The scheme also includes increasing the district’s floral meadows (currently 1.4 hectares) and expanding the tree canopy through a four-year tree-planting program that aims to plant approximately 10,000 trees.
Huntingdonshire District Council is proud to lead by example in promoting biodiversity and restoring nature across the district. Through a combination of community engagement, strategic partnerships, and data-driven projects, the Council is creating a greener, more biodiverse future for all.
**Peterborough City Council** (PCC) is working with
a moth specialist to secure the future of winged insects, paying particular attention to the nationally scarce Four-spotted Moth _Tyta luctuosa_ . It was seen every year at Werrington Brook Drain from 2000 to 2019. Then, major earthworks during late 2019 and during 2020 saw vegetation cleared and the original channel of the drain filled in and re-aligned 100 meters west of the original channel. Although the moth had recolonised in 2021, their numbers then fell over subsequent years until the 2024 season reported no moth sightings. Field bindweed is the single favored food plant of the moth larvae but most of this was removed during 2020. PCC are working on how to re-establish field bindweed and implement more suitable habitat management to improve Werrington Drain Brook before the chances of the moth recolonising are lost.
_**Through habitat improvements, the Council is hoping to encourage the scarce Fourspotted Moth,** Tyta luctuosa_ _**, to return.**_
The Council is responsible for the management of 36km of County Wildlife Site roadside verge. These verges are cut in autumn and either spring or summer depending on the botanical communities present. The arisings are piled up and collected within a few days of being cut. While it is increasingly difficult to find a contractor with the suitable machinery to cut and collect arisings, the 2024 season saw this
_Credit: Langdyke Countryside Trust_
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positive conservation management continue. As a result, the condition of these roadside verges has changed from negative condition in 2023 to positive condition in 2024.
Great crested newts are an important species within the PCC area and as a European Protected Species they have to be considered as part of every planning application. Peterborough Conservation Volunteers carry out annual surveys for PCC on some of the ponds within the City, and although the newts are still present, numbers appear to be declining. It was noted that the condition of the ponds was becoming less suitable for the newts, with turbidity levels increasing and suitable vegetation becoming less abundant, therefore the Council has initiated a project to carry out improvements on some ponds within the City.
Biodiversity Net Gain is now a statutory requirement of all planning applications, with any exemptions having to be evidence based. PCC currently have three off-site unit providers that are actively going through the Section 106 process with a number of other sites interested.
Barn owl box monitoring within the PCC area continues to be carried out with the Applied Wildlife Partnership. Although the results from the 2024 breeding season are awaited, the aim is to replace some of the barn owl boxes through the season, with the hope of an improved kestrel box occupancy.
**South Cambridgeshire District Council** (SCDC) continues to take action for nature, in alignment with the Doubling Nature ambition and the Council’s’ ‘Green to Our Core’ business plan priority.
While land within SCDC’s ownership is limited, improvements are being made to green areas associated with social housing. This year three areas have been improved, including in Over, Swavesey and Orwell by installing bird nest boxes, planting new standard trees, plug-planting wildflower areas, and building habitat piles to encourage pollinators, invertebrates, amphibians and small mammals. An established reduced mowing regime has continued on a further five sites to support pollinators and other wildlife. For the upcoming planting season, a further five locations on the Council’s estate have been scoped for tree planting.
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Funded by the Shared Prosperity Fund and the Rural England Prosperity Fund, SCDC has embarked on improvements of four spaces on SCDC-owned housing estates in Little Wilbraham, Coton, Great Shelford and Orwell. As well as accessibility and seating improvements, these areas will benefit from over 40 new trees, wildflower planting and nest boxes. Also funded by the the above funds, £60,000 was distributed across parish councils, to improve community green spaces in their areas. Barton, Little Shelford, Ickleton and Milton parish councils successfully applied to the grant, which has funded improvements including renovation of play equipment and fencing, and benefits for nature including semi-wild planting, garden planting, and bird and bat boxes.
Since the last State of Nature report SCDC have hosted a Local Climate Action Conference. This focused on nature, with three of the five speakers covering Local Nature Recovery Plans, Biodiversity Net Gain, and funding for grassroots nature projects. Approximately seventy people attended, including district and parish councillors, members of the public and local climate action groups. Following this success, the Climate and Environment team will host another conference and also a climate and nature action fair in Cambourne in November 2024.
The arrival of Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) at the mandatory level of 10% above baseline from February 2024 has meant that the ecology team at Greater Cambridge Shared Planning have been very busy reviewing planning applications against the legislation (as set out in the Environment Act 2021) and trying hard to ensure that this new tool is leveraged to help us not only protect, but also to enhance our local biodiversity. To meet this new challenge, the team has grown to three full-time ecologists, reflecting the huge amount of work now being generated because of BNG and the importance that the Council places on resourcing this need.
For development sites where it has been difficult to provide BNG onsite, there are now four advance-creation habitat banks set up across Greater Cambridge providing Biodiversity Credits through the creation of new habitats on former agricultural land. As a result, South Cambridgeshire now has approximately 127 ha of
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new habitats being created across four sites for which Section 106 agreements are in place to monitor and manage these places for nature for at least 30 years. With three more habitat banks in Section 106 negotiation, bringing the total to over 200 ha by spring 2025. The Natural Environment Team have also been busy facilitating other “green” projects, like the creation of new woodlands on the outskirts of Cambourne in collaboration with Cambourne Town Council and a new initiative to assess land holdings for biodiversity.
This year’s Six Free Trees scheme, which gives parish councils the option of six free saplings or one free standard tree, saw good uptake, with 146 trees given out to 46 parishes. This brings the total of free trees given away to over 750 since the scheme started in 2019.
SCDC’s Community Chest grant provides up to £2000 for community projects, including those with a nature focus. This year the grant has given £6,300 to initiatives that support nature, including restoration of the Hibbert-Ware Memorial Garden in Girton, a nature area at Hardwick pre-school, a Silver Jubilee Garden at Cambourne Church, and hedge laying in Willingham.
To share the learnings from these projects, we have included case studies on our website and started a project directory to encourage parish councils and local nature groups to contact and learn from one-another.
In recent years the council’s Awarded Watercourses has been assisting the Wild Trout Trust and the River Mel Restoration Group in a long-running project to restore this precious chalk stream. Watercourses colleagues had provided equipment, machinery and staff to place gravel and chalk on the riverbed. This work culminated in May 2024 with the translocation of 27 wild brown trout to the river following the restoration of the river habitat.
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## **4. The work of our partner organisations**
**Anglian Water’s** Biodiversity team reported last year that they were working to enhance biodiversity on at its intake on the River Great Ouse at Offord. The site is being improved through targeted tree planting, pollarding, coppicing and wildlife, and encouraging the creation of dead and dying features in trees to help wildlife, as well as pond creation. Work continued and this year, and due to the woodland being opened up has seen an explosion in stinging nettles for which a plan has been put together to tackle it. The felling of 18 trees will be carried out over the winter months and around 1,600 trees and shrubs will be planted.
In the river itself, work to eradicate Floating Pennywort in collaboration with the Environment Agency has been successful. This work will protect Grafham Water and the Ouse Washes. We’re happy to say that there were no patches of Floating Pennywort found this year. In the coming years we will continue to monitor the river, taking swift action should more be found.
Elsewhere Anglian Water has installed additional phosphate removal at Brampton Water Recycling Centre, which will improve the ecological health of the river downstream. Additional storm water storage capacity was added to water recycling centres at Catworth, Doddington, Ely, March, Melbourn, Sawtry, Waterbeach, Soham, Uttons Drove, St Neots, and Cambridge.
_**Anglian Water and Cambridge Water are proposing a new reservoir in the Fens to help meet the growing demands on water supply in the East of England. The design for the proposed reservoir site, between Chatteris and March, near to Doddington, Wimblington and Manea includes ideas for the features. Areas of land to the north and south of the reservoir site that could be needed for environmental mitigation measures and/or construction have also been identified.**_
_Credit: LDA Design, Fereday Pollard and Anglian Water_
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**Cambridge Past, Present & Future** (CambridgePPF) is the local charity that cares about the beauty of Cambridge and its environment. The charity owns and cares for several green spaces in and around Cambridge including Wandlebury Country Park, Coton Countryside Reserve and Barnwell Meadows, and it is working hard to improve their ecological value, increase the amount of habitat and better connect them to other habitats in the area. CambridgePPF also provides opportunities for local communities to visit and enjoy these places and to benefit from free access to nature, including a schools outdoor education programme.
_**As part of their corporate membership of CPPF, staff from Illumina contribute valued volunteering hours including helping to maintain meadows at Wandlebury County Park.**_
_Credit: ?????_
The population of the Cambridge area is planned to grow by 30% over a 20-year period, at the same time as nature is in significant decline. To respond, there is a need to increase the amount of green space available for nature and people. CambridgePPF is doing this through projects on its land, as well as working in partnership with other like-minded organisations and also by advocating for policy changes.
During the year CambridgePPF carried out a range of nature conservation tasks including hedge laying, woodland restoration, scrub control, pond management, meadow management and litter picking. Volunteers kindly gave over 4,727 hours of their time.
A new ambitious vision for 200 acres of arable farmland was agreed for the charity’s Coton Countryside Reserve. The vision includes the creation of a large area of “wild-belt” on the western side of Cambridge which is rich in nature, helps to mitigate climate change and improves community
wellbeing. The aspiration is for this “wild-belt” to be larger than the charity’s own land and to involve neighbouring landowners so as to help to deliver the vision of the Cambridge Nature Network. Work began to set out what this vision could look like with input from the local community and stakeholders.
Plans for two new projects have been progressed that can immediately help to deliver the Coton vision by transforming 26 acres of farmland into a mixture of meadows, scrub, wetland and woodland. Fundraising is underway to pay for the works and to
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sustain them financially over the long term, including through the sale of Biodiversity Net Gain credits.
Following the purchase of 25 acres of farmland next to Wandlebury Country Park in 2021, CambridgePPF has continued to transform it to benefit nature and people. A new dog exercise area was opened with a ‘Wandlebury Woofs’ event and the exercise area proved immediately popular with dog walkers. The newly seeded meadows got off to such a good start that they were able to support grazing with cattle, and the efforts of volunteers who hand pulled some of the undesirable plants that can invade new meadows, such as creeping thistle, were much appreciated. During the winter some of the young trees that had succumbed to the drought of 2022 were replaced. A new pollinator garden which had been planted the previous autumn was also formally opened.
CambridgePPF is one of the lead partners for the Cambridge Nature Network and has helped to secure and manage significant grants on behalf of the partnership, including from the National Lottery Community Fund.
**Cambridge Water Company** continues to deliver biodiversity improvements as part of its environmental commitments. This includes investing in a chalk stream restoration programme in addition to the development of two funding schemes: **SPRING** and **PEBBLE** , both of which support environmental change in the wider catchment and in the communities that Cambridge Water supplies.
SPRING supports landowners to make small changes on their land that have the potential to make significant improvements to water quality within the catchment. The scheme includes options that enhance biodiversity, improve soil structure, reduce runoff and protect water quality to improve the overall catchment resilience.
Specifically, options include cover crops, wild bird seed mixes, buffer strips and collaboration on further innovative trials. Cover crops provide a wide range of benefits as a variety of species to grow on otherwise bare soil, which helps to reduce soil erosion in the event of high rainfall. Another benefit is they improve soil health and structure which increases nutrient holding capacity. Wild bird seed mixes and buffer strips can provide habitats for
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many pollinator species increasing biodiversity on the farm. Buffer strips around field boundaries provide protection for nontarget organisms that may be impacted from spray drift and field run-off into watercourses. Each option strengthens resilience in the catchment by supporting the creation of healthy, adaptable landscapes better able to respond to environmental pressures.
That the SPRING scheme is flexible to the farmer and their business means it has proven popular with the farming community. Through the scheme it is hoped to identify further research and projects that help to improve water quality in the catchment.
The PEBBLE Fund provides support for biodiversity projects within the community in collaboration with environmental stakeholders and is open to applications each year. Highlights for 2024 included a wildflower project in Little Shelford, tree planting in an ancient woodland and several chalk stream restoration projects, in addition to Cambridge Water’s own chalk stream restoration programme. Little Shelford Community Orchard received funding to lay a traditional hedge and transform a degraded patch of grass into a beautiful wildflower meadow that can now be enjoyed by the whole community. Wistow Wood, an ancient woodland and SSSI site received a grant to remove and pollard diseased ash trees as well as a veteran oak. This left space to plant 1,000 new saplings of various species including Common Oak, Small Leaved Lime, Aspen, Silver Birch, Common Alder, Wild Cherry, Grey Willow, Hazel, Spindle, Crab Apple, Wild Privet, Wayfaring Tree and Wild Service Tree. An experimental sheep-fat deer repellent was also used on some of the saplings.
During 2023-24 £70,000 of support was provided to catchment schemes improving over 420 ha of land, whilst the PEBBLE fund has awarded over £220,000 of support since 2019, improving around 70 hectares of habitat.
_**A grant from the PEBBLE Fund enabled Little Shelford to transform degraded grassland into a wildflower meadow. Here a local farmer can be seen seeding the field with a wildflower seed mix.**_
_Credit: Shelford Community Orchard and Woodland Project Committee_
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Several chalk stream restoration projects were funded including on the River Shep at Angle Lane, which builds on previous restoration funded upstream, and on the Rivers Granta, Mel, Shep and for the headwaters at Bassingbourn. This has included wetland creation, bankside planting, habitat creation for water voles, channel narrowing, sediment removal and the addition of more gravel and chalk for spawning fish. These measures provide the diverse habitat that support chalk stream aquatic and terrestrial wildlife, and sinuous fast flowing channels and banks for priority species such as water voles and brown trout. Community volunteers worked incredibly hard over the summer on the River Shep to re-instate the gravel bed and install hazel faggot bundles using material cleared from the banks which should not only provide additional habitat, but also trap sediment as it comes down the river.
_**With the help of the Wild Trout Trust, ForShep community volunteers learned how to install posts to secure brash bundles on the River Shep at Angle Lane, Shepreth.**_
_Credit: Cambridge Water_
Given the pressures on the water environment in the wider Cambridge area, specifically on chalk streams, Cambrige Water have proposed £10 million be invested in restoration projects including on: Cherry Hinton Brook, Vicars Brook, Hoffer Brook, the River Shep, the River Mel and Mill River). While it is recognised that each waterbody will have a different set of pressures to be addressed, overarching aims include: to improve longitudinal connectivity, which will look at removing or modifying barriers to fish passage such as weirs; to increase water quantity, which will happen through abstraction reductions and nature based solutions to direct water back into the aquifer; to improve water quality, which will require catchment scale thinking involving farmers and citizen science monitoring; to understand and manage invasive non-native species through studies and removal; to improve surface water management through increasing water storage upstream and catching run-off; and finally to maintain the good-quality habitat that is already present and improve the habitat where it is not.
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The **Centre for Landscape Regeneration** (CLR), led by the University of Cambridge with the RSPB, the National Institute for Agrictural Botany (NIAB) and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, has now completed two years of research including two field seasons across the Cambridgeshire Fens. The research team includes scholars of many subjects from across the University and partners, including from the disciplines of archaeology, ecology, zoology, computer science and the social sciences.
This project, funded by the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council is taking a whole-systems approach and is putting together information on a wide range of topics to determine what works - and what might not work in the future - in this very special landscape. Topics range from water management, farmland and ditch biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions under different conditions, to businesses that depend on the land, such as farming, food processing and nature conservation. It is recognised that all factors influence each other.
This summer, CLR researchers continued fieldwork on key fen land-use types, including on arable fields, wet grasslands, nature reserves, ditches and solar arrays. This has only been possible with permissions of all the landowners and managers who have enabled access to their and sites for the teams to carry out their work, and with whom the team look forward to sharing the 2024 data gathered in the coming months.
A key achievement of this year has been the Fen Farm Survey, where in-depth interviews were conducted with 70 land managers across the research area. The outputs of the survey will inform what future land-use might look like in the Fens under different scenarios of climate change and water availability. It is hoped that some of the survey data might influence policies about farming incentives and peatland management. The research team are grateful to all those who participated in the survey for being willing to share their knowledge and expertise.
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_**CLR Researchers from the Dept of Zoology conducted fieldwork across Fen farms during the summer, 2024.**_
_Credit: Victor Gillett_
Other progress includes: proof-of-concept field trials of a lowcost CO2 sensor network; flux towers measuring greenhouse gas emissions on wet grassland sites; measured methane and soil microbial activity; eDNA sampling; and surveyed pollinator, beetle, dragonfly, bird, plant and ditch communities. Multiple Conservation Evidence workshops in the field were also held to share knowledge and insights amongst the community.
Researchers continue to work closely with stakeholder groups including NGOs, farmers, community groups, local and national government, and industry. A community outreach and education programme, which includes a partnership with the Cambridge Science Centre to bring an interactive workshop on the future of the Fens to primary and secondary schools across the region as part of their ‘STEM in the Fens’ initiative, and a collaboration with the Museum of Zoology is inspiring children with the biodiversity around them.
It is anticipated that outputs and data from the project will become available to the stakeholder community during 2025, when the research team look forward to sharing their findings with all involved.
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The **Country Land and Business Association** (CLA) represents approximately 600 members across Cambridgeshire, covering a diverse range of rural businesses and land management interests. Farming and food production sit at the core of CLA membership and as the agricultural transition period advances, the organisation continues to work with the Rural Payments Agency to ensure agri-environment schemes are fit for purpose and able to deliver for farmers and land managers, as well as nature and biodiversity.
Responsible access to the countryside, and the value of green social prescribing to mental and physical health is an emerging policy area that the CLA is eager to support and the Association has met with partner organisations and stakeholders to share ideas and explore the role that landowners can play in this important initiative.
Ahead of the general election, the CLA proactively engaged with prospective MPs to outline the importance of the rural sector and the contributions it can make to the national economy, with environmental sustainability a common thread throughout those discussions.
As the county’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy continues to develop, the CLA has liaised with the responsible authority charged with delivering this body of work, and endeavored to raise the profile of the Strategy among CLA members to ensure their views and opinions are heard and able to inform the final document.
The **Environment Agency** (EA): In July 2024, both the Anglian (Great Ouse) and Anglian (Eastern) Regional Flood & Coastal Committee’s awarded £1 million of Local Levy funding each towards the delivery of Natural Flood Management (NFM) projects. The East Anglia NFM Local Levy approach focuses on small scale projects with a total value of less than £500k and a maximum Local Levy contribution of £75k per project. The East Anglia NFM approach uses a streamlined funding application and approval process that is proportionate to inherently smallscale low-cost schemes where the flood reduction benefits are not easily quantified. All Risk Management Authorities (RMA) can apply for this funding, which will be available over three financial years (starting this year) enabling several bidding opportunities, rather than concentrating RMA resources to one single deadline.
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EA engagement with the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Climate Programme Board provides the opportunity to influence some allocation of devolved funding to the Combined Authority for climate response. The Cambridge Climate Plan is due to be reviewed by the end of July 2025.
It is anticipated that infographics and data for the Fens Climate Change Risk Assessment project report, produced together with Fens 2100+, will be available from Autumn 2024.
It has been another busy year for the **Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group East** (FWAG East). Their work with farmers increasingly encompasses advising on farming techniques as well as habitat creation and restoration and the protection of soil and water. Applications for agri-environment schemes have increased with the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI 23), and the 2024 version looks to be attracting equally large application numbers. The new approach of being able to stack schemes on top of each other, and the fact that schemes are non-competitive and can be applied for at any time of year, is proving popular; and even the temperamental application software isn’t getting in the way!
With a view to the opening of the revised Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier next year FWAG East are pleased to have won the contract to deliver Higher Tier advice on behalf of Natural England. They will also once again be visiting farms on behalf of Natural England to approve the application of options on priority habitats such as species-rich and wet grassland, traditional orchards and parkland.
One of the wetland creation projects in the Fens for which Higher Tier funding was secured last year, on arable land close to the Ouse Washes, is now completed and drawing in birds. A smaller scheme for fen creation is anticipated in the 2025 round of Higher Tier. A fenland wetland site of one hectare was created through Mid Tier, as was a cluster of ponds in South Cambridgeshire. Elsewhere in Cambridgeshire, several Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) applications were made (replacing CS Mid Tier), initially in the simpler scheme including flower-rich areas, buffer strips and winter bird food plots on arable land, and latterly more complex agreements including notill farming and actions for precision farming in addition to the habitat creation, restoration and management options.
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_**On farm ponds provide valuable water storage, for flood attenuation as well as cattle watering, in addition to providing biodiversity boosting habitats.**_
_Credit: FWAG East_
Throughout the year FWAG East presented at several workshops for farmers and once more took part in the regional Farm Business Updates, including speaking about agri-environment schemes in January, and holding SFI workshops on both for FWAG members (shortly to be repeated this year) and to Cambridgeshire County Farms tenants. Involvement in the development of the Local Nature Recover Strategy (LNRS), has included collaborating with partners to feed into the habitat and species prioritisation processes, and arranging for an LNRS speaker to be present at two farmer cluster meetings, one in the West Cambs 100s area and one in the Ouse Valley. Also in the Ouse, a partnership is being developed with the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust with whom the team hope to work with on a wetland restoration project.
The West Cambs 100s farmer cluster continues to contribute to the national Healthy Soil, Healthy Food and Healthy People research project (www.h3.ac.uk), and the team are involved in a research bid for a new project to follow on from this. The result
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of a funding bid which would support taking part in the Grey Partridge Recovery Project is awaited Other projects continuing from last year include workshops for the suppliers of vegetables, fruit and salads to a major supermarket, and looking at the carbon footprints of the suppliers to a major retailer. The Cam Washes SSSI nature recovery project is due to start soon.
FWAG East continues to deliver the District Level Licensing scheme on behalf of Natural England, creating and restoring ponds to provide habitat for great crested newts. This year 85 new or restored Cambridgeshire ponds were surveyed for great crested newts. Of these, 29% tested positive, 49% absent, and 14% inconclusive. 8% of ponds were unable to be tested due to low water levels. The Cambridgeshire results compare well to a national occupancy rate of 20% and a national occupancy rate (i.e. new or restored ponds) of 28%.
Farm surveys are taking an increasing amount of the team’s time, which this year included the completion of a comprehensive Biodiversity Assessment of a large estate in the Ouse valley, as well as a bird count on land near Cambridge. Baseline biodiversity surveys for several of the farms in the West Cambs 100s farm cluster have also been completed.
The management of hedgerows across the counties has been given a boost by a new action in the Sustainable Farming Assessment, “Assess and record hedgerow condition”. Simple in itself, it encourages farmers to look at their hedgerows and think about management and restoration including new planting and gapping up, coppicing and laying. Payments for these are available in the Countryside Stewardship capital grant scheme, so it is hoped further hedgerow improvement will be seen following on from previous hedgerow planting initiatives.
FWAG East has been closely involved in the revitalisation of the Cam Catchment Partnership, and has been attending meetings about the Granta catchment and the Rhee catchment, helping to create a vision for both catchments. They have also increasingly been involved in woodland creation, and will be working with the County Council to encourage more woodland planting across the county.
Once again, a Cambridgeshire farmer has performed well in the FWAG East Conservation Award; Bedlam Farms Organic, a fenland vegetable farm, was the runner up in the 2024 award (over five counties).
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**Fenland SOIL** has two major projects running until January 2025 through funding from Natural England’s Paludiculture Exploration Fund (PEF) and the Environment Agency’s Lowland Agricultural Peat Water Discovery Pilot. Soil mapping using local knowledge to create updated soil maps of the Fens, including identifying where the remaining areas of peat are continues to be rolled out. Soil surveying to ensure accurate soils data and peat depths are also being carried out. The soils data is combined with productivity and water management metrics to produce ‘opportunity’ maps, identifying areas that could have potential for sustainable lowland peat management.
Over the summer of 2024, with funding through the PEF grant, a trial took place to explore the feasibility of growing commercial salad crops under paludiculture conditions. Paludiculture involves growing on peat soils with a high water table, ideally at 10 to 30cm from the surface, with the aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the soil. Many of the crops identified for growing under these conditions such as reeds, typha and sphagnum are being trialled elsewhere in the UK. Due to the productive nature of the Fens, there was an interest in trialling food crops to ensure food production would not be dispaced elsewhere. In order to maintain these conditions, a consistent water supply needs to be available. A three hectare plot was chosen due to proximity to a reservoir to ensure the water table could be held at between 20 to 30cm below surface throughout the summer months in the event of dry conditions. The field also had excellent drainage infrastructure with land drains spaced at 10 metres, and a dam was installed to hold water in the ditch at the required level. There was mixed success with the resulting crops of celery and Chinese leaf. The crops had been growing well initially but started to slow down and show signs of stress as they approached harvest, which provides valuable learning on the agronomic challenges of growing crops under these conditions. Subject to funding being secured, a further year of trials will provide an opportunity for some of the agronomic challenges faced in 2024 to be addressed.
Further workstreams exist across the Lowland Agricultural Peat Water Discovery Pilot project and which explore a range of questions surrounding sustainable management of the Fens. One such workstream is assessing the impact of ditch reprofiling on biodiversity, which it is hoped will help to highlight the important role ditches play in maintaining biodiversity across the
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fenland landscape. Another is investigating how water moves through peat soils at varying degrees of degradation to better understand the feasibility of holding higher water tables.
The second Fenland SOIL Conference will take place in January 2025, ‘Exploring the Future of Lowland Agricultural Peat’. The key themes address the move towards finding solutions for the challenges we know we face with lowland agricultural peat. This is a valuable opportunity for farmers, academics, policy makers and other key stakeholders to discuss themes including water management, governance challenges, and the economics and finance of implementing change.
The **Fens East Peat Partnership** consists of Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, Norfolk Wildlife Trust, Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Northampton and Cambridgeshire, RSPB, National Trust and Natural England and is part of the long-standing Fens for the Future Partnership. The Partnership was formed in 2021 to start addressing the barriers to lowland peat restoration in the Fens through a Nature for Climate Change Peatland Grant Scheme ‘Discovery’ grant, and has expanded to include private land owners who have sites hwere peat restoration will take place. In September 2023 the Partnership was successful in its application for a restoration grant to begin the delivery work. This funding, delivered by Natural England, is supporting peat restoration that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from sites with degraded peat.
Of the fourteen peat restoration site projects the Partnership has across the Fens, work has started on four sites within Cambridgeshire. All the preparation and development work to get to this point has paid off and we are seeing these sites being restored now. This work will protect the peat from degrading further and keeping the peat wet will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Restoration work on the other sites will continue through the rest of the year and into 2025. This means these areas of lowland peat will be more resilient in the face of climate change and help us to adapt and deal with the changes. Another key benefit from the work will be to help to store water in the event of extreme weather events. Habitat and biodiversity will also develop and strengthen.
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The Cambridgeshire sites include areas of the Great Fen and Wicken Fen Vision together with other private sites. All the restoration work follows the Lawton principles to make space for nature, ‘more, bigger and better’, creating a strong ecological network as part of the Cambridgeshire Nature Recovery Network strategy.
**The Food, Farming and Countryside Commission** (FFCC) completed its action research trial of a local Land Use Framework in 2023, to promote the case for Land Use Frameworks for England and at a larger-than-local level. The Cambridgeshire pilot aimed to enable better, more joined-up decision making about land use to achieve and, where possible, reconcile the many demands on the county: development pressures, nature recovery, sustainable farming, the sustainable supply and use of water and energy, and meeting the needs of local communities. Over the course of the last year, the story and insights of the Cambridgeshire pilot – particularly the Vizzualitycreated prototype spatial data visualisation tool – have been received with great interest from other organisations interested in the development of a Land Use Framework, including local authorities, universities and Defra.
Since publishing the report on the trials in Cambridgeshire and Devon, FFCC continues to work with partners in Cambridgeshire and across the country to understand the larger-than-local challenges of land use governance. Insights from the trials have been taken to a wider audience across the country, in particular sharing the various messages with Defra and other government departments who are developing policy for various land uses. These have been well received by the new government and it is understood that the trials have been a significant source of information for the upcoming Defra Land Use Framework, which is now confidently expected before the end of the year. Separately, FFCC also worked with partners in Cambridgeshire on the ‘Food Conversation’, a ‘citizens assembly’ approach to hearing what citizens in Cambridgeshire think about food. This sought to highlight the relationships across the food system, including the links between food, farming and nature. Through this work and FFCC’s land use advocacy, strong relationships have been built with both Daniel Zeichner (MP for Cambridge and Minister of State, Defra) and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Mayor Nik Johnson, to feed into policy. The FFCC team are feeling positive
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about the impacts of both their Land Use and Food Conversation work on local and national policymaking, and hope to continue their relationship with Cambridgeshire to further this thinking.
The **Forestry Commission** continues to dedicate significant resource to supporting the development and implementation of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough’s LNRS, with provision of a dedicated Nature Recovery Advisor and considerable input from area team staff to further progress towards a landscape that is more wooded, richer in wildlife and delivering a wide range of other environmental and social benefits for people. Trees and woodland play a vital role in helping to address the twin challenges of biodiversity and climate change, and the Commission works hard to support and promote this critical role for all types of woodland. The Commission works with Cambridgeshire landowners and tenants to help design and create new woodlands, with the aim of increasing biodiversity, increasing carbon sequestration and improving the wellbeing of communities across the county. Our ancient woodlands are irreplaceable, and so a priority for the Forestry Commission is to help support their enhancement and sustainable management for both the recovery of biodiversity and climate and disease resilience, and seek opportunities to expand or reconnect them by natural regeneration or appropriate new planting.
Working with partners and stakeholders, the Commission will continue efforts to increase overall canopy cover and sustainable management, not just of woodlands, but also historic orchards and trees outside woodland in urban and rural areas. Well-managed woodland or forestry provides structure and composition in which species can thrive, complementing our semi-natural habitats, and hence the Commission see a key role for appropriately managed productive woodland in supporting nature recovery. Woodland and forestry can also provide wider environmental benefits such as flood amelioration, water quality improvements and climate change mitigation. The provision of home-grown timber also helps support rural economies, sustainable development practices and to offset our carbon footprint overseas.
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The **Great Ouse Rivers Trust** is very much the new kid on the block in Cambridgeshire`s array of environmental bodies. Registered as a charity in 2023 it is dedicated to protecting the Great Ouse and its tributaries, lakes, wetlands and wider catchment for the benefit of people and nature. Perhaps surprisingly for England’s fifth largest catchment the River Great Ouse had not to date been part of the nationwide Rivers Trust movement and was the last gap in the Trust map of over 65 local river trusts across the UK to be filled.
## _**Early morning by the Great Ouse, Hemingford Great Meadow.**_
_Credit: Roger Mitchell_
The Trust seeks to work with communities, landowners, businesses and environmental organisations to achieve its vision for the Great Ouse: A natural and healthy river enjoyed and valued by all. The Trust is about to employ its first member of staff and has funding applications in the pipeline to further increase its capacity to work with its fellow organisations across the catchment.
It is already active in citizen science projects and river fly monitoring, has recently been part of a consortium seeking funds from the EA for natural flood management and is currently pursuing further opportunities in this vein. The Trust welcomes very much its partnerships and cooperates with the many organisations active in the catchment, and whilst keen to develop its own programme of river habitat management projects is also very happy to assist others with efforts in the same vein.
The **Great Ouse Valley Trust** (GOVT) continues its work to promote, protect and enhance the unique landscape of the Great Ouse Valley within the county. 2024 saw the third full day Community Engagement Workshop, with this event covering the stretch of the valley from Huntingdon to St Neots. Parish and town councillors, local business people, representatives of national conservation groups, Rotary club members and active groups took time out to study the landscape in detail, note the challenges and identify practical projects to be tackled. The workshop follows two previous workshops which each covered a
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sections of the valley between Huntingdon and Earith, and which also identified priorities and projects which have formed the basis of action plans which are being implemented.
_**The first in a series of three community engagement workshops took place in Brampton in October 2024, where participants reviewed the stretch of river from Huntingdon to St Neots to identify areas with potential for nature recovery and develop projects for action.**_
_Credit: GOVT_
Current projects include a tree planting programme across the area with community woodland, extensive planting on land reclamation sites and, most notably, riverside black poplar and willow planting as part of the “cooling the rivers” initiative supported by Woodland Trust, the Forestry Commission and the Environment Agency.
_**Volunteers and trustees continue with tree planting endeavours, where here they can be seen having planted trees in Noble’s Field, St Ives to both improve biodiversity and prevent further river bank erosion.**_
_Credit: GOVT_
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The Trust partners with Suez in planting new woodland on reclamation sites and monitors a wetland nature reserve within the site that now has a bird hide and Sand Martin hotel.
Thanks to the efforts of many volunteers supporting a new green management structure at the County Council, and working with all users of the Ouse Valley Way Long Distance Footpath, the path has been properly maintained for the first time in many years. The Ouse Valley Way management group meets three times a year to plan and monitor the path maintenance and the Trust continues to work towards full recognition of the path as a National Trail.
The Trust’s water quality monitoring project is expanding and feeding in results to the national data base and they have brought together expertise on flood management and water quality. The Trust is represented on the stakeholder group of the new Fen Reservoir project.
The Trust’s long running campaign to gain National Landscape designation for the Great Ouse and Washes has gained full support from the Mayor and the Board of the Combined Authority and recently gained financial support from Huntingdonshire District Council to work with the Council to achieve self designation as a Regional Park as a stepping stone to full National Landscape recognition.
The Trust is a registered Charitable Incorporated Organisation and has a partner member structure representing a broad span of stakeholders including parish and town councils, landowners, farmers, national conservation bodies, fishermen, runners, Rotary clubs, individual supporters and many more.
It has been a hectic year for **Langdyke Countryside Trust** with a number of projects aimed at improving and enhancing nature coming to fruition.
Following the acquisition of Christ’s College nature reserve early in the year, after a successful public appeal, Langdyke, run entirely by volunteers, now manages nine nature reserves across the area totalling more than 230 acres. While membership has risen to 220 households their flock of sheep has stayed steady at 74!
The most recent developments include: the introduction of viewing points at Maxey and Etton giving walkers wonderful
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views of the wildlife from already established footpaths; the building of three new wildlife ponds and a new area to encourage turtle doves and butterflies at Etton High Meadow; major work to remove an invasive and damaging weed from the water areas at Etton Maxey nature reserve, which has been affecting bird life; clearance work to restore the ancient M’Lady’s Pond near Ailsworth; and the finalisation of a management plan for the recently acquired Christ’s College reserve between Helpston and Maxey.
_**In June 2024, work was carried out to create a viewing platform over the wet area of the Verdette Wood Meadow in Green Lane, Etton. Also included below is the view over the Verdette Pit from the platform.**_
_Credit: Richard Astle, Langdyke Countryside Trust_
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_**As with many conservation organisations, volunteers make up an important part of the Langdyke Countryside Trust’s workforce. Here a volunteer is helping to clearing debris from a pond at a Langdyke Reserve.**_
_Credit: Langdyke Countryside Trust._
And while this has been going on Langdyke has also relaunched its website making it easier to navigate and with a cleaner design.
Walkers using the banks and footpaths near to the Maxey Cut have already welcomed the opening up of three viewing areas on to the Christ’s College nature reserve. Working with the Environment Agency, the Trust is creating an information trail along the Cut and South Drain, with boards explaining about the heritage and nature of the area.
Three other viewing areas, all with disabled access, have been created along the Green Lane Bridleway at Etton providing lovely views of the Vergette Wood Meadow water areas. Across the road at Etton High Meadow three new ponds have been dug out and a bank established which has been sown with seed that will attract butterflies and hopefullly provide feed for Turtle Doves during their summer visits.
Tackling problems affecting nature is also an important part of Langdyke’s volunteer workforce. The main pond at Swaddywell which had leaked is currently being rescued by volunteers who are saving plants and creatures, clearing out debris and installing a new lining to restore it to its former glory. Likewise, the ancient M’Lady’s Pond near Ailsworth, which has been in a sorry state in recent years, has undergone similar restoration work.
And major work has been undertaken at the Etton Maxey reserve with a digger being used to scrape away invasive crassula, also known as New Zealand Pygmy weed, which takes over the muddy margins of water areas which is usually a home for wading birds. Since the completion of the work, two Glossy Ibis have regularly visited the reserve.
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The **Magog Trust** is a charity based in Stapleford that cares for Magog Down, 163 acres of former arable land, much of which has been restored to chalk downland. Six woods were also planted with native trees and shrubs. The site is now a County Wildlife Site, managed to promote biodiversity with speciesrich chalk grassland, woodland and hedgerows. Two part-time rangers coordinate management by engaging local farmers and contractors to cut and collect the meadow areas, provide sheep grazing, fencing maintenance, dog waste collection, some scrub control and hedgerow cutting. They are assisted by a small band of volunteers. The Trust plans to obtain a small tractor and associated equipment in the near future. They are also investigating the sharing of resources between groups that manage grasslands for nature. Future plans include creating a pond to add to the site’s biodiversity.
At Magog Down in 2023 chalk hill blue butterflies were recorded for the first time since the reserve was started over 30 years ago, but they have not been sighted in 2024, probably due to adverse weather. On the positive side a short-eared owl was seen regularly in January and February last winter, quartering over the sheep paddocks hunting for voles. In October 2024 the Trust will become the owner of an additional 37 acres of nearby
arable land. This hilltop, now named Chalk Hill Down, has been sown with a wild flower seed mix (Emorsgate M6) and there are plans to leave a permanent fallow strip to encourage rare agricultural weeds from the seed bank to act as part of a wildlife corridor.
_**The Short-eared Owl, while largely nocturnal and crepuscular (dusk and dawn), is still one of the most active British owls during daylight and was seen regularly flying over the Down last winter.**_
_Credit: Magog Trust_
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The **National Farmers Union** (NFU) represents the majority of farmers and growers in Cambridgeshire. The county is a powerhouse of British agricultural production while also being host to much biodiversity and natural beauty. It produces over £0.5bn worth of agricultural production, which is over 3.0% of England’s total production and includes over 10% of the country’s vegetable, horticultural and sugar beet production.
The NFU has promoted sustainable intensification of agricultural production whereby farmers can deliver the dual goals of a safe and reliable food supply for the nation while also protecting and enhancing wildlife, biodiversity and landscapes.
Cambridgeshire’s 2000 or so farm holdings have been at the heart of nature conservation both through voluntary initiatives and through participation in government schemes. The NFU has led industry-wide initiatives including Championing the Farmed Environment, Tried & Tested, the Greenhouse Gas Action Plan, the Voluntary Initiative and Open Farm Sunday, all of which have played, and will continue to play, a role in promoting good environmental practice on farms and sharing that with the wider public.
The NFU has embraced the government’s vision of providing ‘public money for public goods’ and has led the co-design process of the new ELM scheme with Defra adopting much of our proposed ‘Sustainable Food and Farming Scheme’ in their ‘Sustainable Farming Incentive’ scheme. The 2024 expanded offer is proving to be of interest to many farmers, and while it is encouraging to see the inclusion of further lowland peat and ditch options for Cambridgeshire’s farmers, it is recognised there is more to be done.
The development of Local Nature Recovery Strategies, and the opportunities this presents, alongside the further roll-out of the Landscape Recovery Schemes, will make it possible for the burgeoning number of farm cluster groups in the county to deliver in a bigger and better joined-up way.
The NFU is an active partner in the Combined Authority’s work on peatland issues through the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Climate Programme Board and the Fenland SOIL committee, spearheading farmer engagement to tackle the combined goals of peatland preservation and enhancement and reducing carbon emissions. Fenland SOIL has delivered farmer mapping and commissioned research into the economics
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of raising water tables and will use the outputs of both to encourage Defra to go further with the development of grant options that will enable farmers to pursue a mosaic approach to delivering environmental outcomes.
The NFU sees farmers as part of the solution to climate change and nature recovery and Cambridgeshire farmers are playing their part in locking up carbon through effective soil management, hedgerow and tree planting, and ditch management, amongst other things. We have a stated an achievable ambition to reach net zero by 2040 whilst continuing to produce food and protect the environment.
**National Trust** : The UK now has less than half of its biodiversity remaining because of human activity. The evidence from the last 50 years, presented in the State of Nature report, shows that intensive farming and the continuing effects of climate change are the two biggest drivers of nature loss. At sea, unsustainable fishing and climate change are the major contributing factors. The UK is currently classified as one of the world’s most naturedepleted countries.
Hilary McGrady, Director-General for the National Trust, said: “The report is yet another urgent warning that we need to accelerate efforts to tackle the nature and climate crisis. Nature needs us, and we need nature. We’ve all seen how important access to nature is for our health and quality of life, which makes stopping its decline even more important. With report after report documenting the critical state of UK nature we can no longer fiddle around the edges in the hope that will be enough to make everything ok. It’s not too late to act. But we need to do it now.”
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_**Peatland restoration on Burwell Fen forms part of the Trust’s lowland peat restoration programme.**_
_Credit: Mike Selby_
The National Trust in Cambridgeshire are working on projects to reverse nature’s decline. The Trust’s largest lowland peatland restoration project is underway at Wicken Fen NNR which will restore 590 acres (239 hectares) to protect peat and the carbon trapped within as well as the biodiversity dependent upon this vital habitat.
_**The scarce Chaser dragonfly, lubellula fulva, which is considered a species of special concern in the UK due to loss of its specific ideal habitat, can be spotted at Wicken Fen.**_
_Credit: Rob Coleman_
Building on Wicken Fen’s status as one of the most biodiverse places in England and thanks to a grant from Natural England via its Species Recovery Programme, a project is underway to create habitat for the benefit of turtle dove and other species near the village of Reach. In addition, Wicken Fen was designated as one of only twenty-three ‘Dragonfly Hotspots’ in UK by the British Dragonfly Society, in recognition of its exemplary variety of dragonfly and damselfly species as well as providing opportunities for visitors to view and understand more about
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these fabulous species. Excitingly, in its 125th year in the care of the Trust, Wicken Fen also recorded its first crane chick to fully fledge on the reserve.
_**Cranes flying over Wicken Fen are becoming a more frequent sight.**_
_**In 2024 the Wicken team recorded its first crane chick to fully fledge on the reserve.**_
_Credit: Richard Nicoll_
Underpinning the above, the Wilder Wicken Vision remains a vital mechanism through which the Trust will deliver for nature, climate and local communities. This Vision is a 100-year ambition, now twenty-
five years old, through which the Trust works in partnership to restore habitats on a landscape-scale, creating connectivity for wildlife and local communities from Wicken Fen to the edge of Cambridge.
_**Highland cows and Konik ponies are a regular feature of the wild Wicken landscape.**_
_Credits: Jim Woolf and Mike Selby_
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**Natural England** (NE) has worked with partners towards building a ‘Nature Recovery Network’, creating more wildlife-rich places that are bigger, better and joined-up. This Network will help address the challenges of biodiversity loss, climate change, and public health and well-being.
National Nature Reserves (NNRs) and Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) are at the core of nature conservation and central to nature recovery and connecting people with nature. NE directly manage five NNRs in Cambridgeshire, and seek to develop their role in supporting nature recovery across their wider ecological landscapes, in particular the Great Fen and John Clare Country.
As one of six partners on the Fens East Peat Partnership, NE are leading projects to restore peatland on Holme Fen NNR, Darlows Farm and Chippenham Fen NNR, where advice has been provided to a number of landowners on options for wetland creation and peat restoration. NE are also active partners in several other Fens initiatives.
NE farmland advisers are supporting existing and developing new farm clusters across the County, including the East Cambridge Farm Cluster which has recently joined with the Granta Farm Cluster and the Ely Nature-Friendly Farming Zone. Whilst awaiting details of the future Environmental Land Management schemes, advice has been provided to land managers with expiring agreements and those looking to enter new schemes.
NE is a partner in the Cambridge Nature Network, which is included in its Nature Recovery Projects programme, and continues to support the Network through the grant aiding of projects, with recent examples involving the restoration of wetland habitats, research into species recovery opportunities and the purchase of equipment for the East Cambridge Farm Cluster to support conservation grazing and regenerative farming principles.
Protected Sites Officers continue to carry out a monitoring programme and provide bespoke advice to owners and occupiers of SSSIs across the County, contributing to securing favourable condition status.
Advice continues to be provided on major development and infrastructure schemes to ensure these embed and support nature recovery. Working with partners an East Anglian Joint Protocol on water efficiency has been developed, to help address
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increasing demands for water. Input into the design of the Fens Reservoir to ensure it maximises gains for the natural environment is ongoing, as is work with partners on cross-boundary strategic projects such as the Oxford to Cambridge Pan Regional Partnership and East West Rail to help ensure that growth is both sustainable and underpins our shared nature recovery aims.
Support continues to provided to the Combined Authority, who are the Responsible Authority (RA) for the Local Nature Recovery Strategy for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, and t Natural Cambridgeshire for the development of the Strategy and to ensure alignment with government policy. Working alongside the Environment Agency and Forestry Commission, technical input has been provided to inform the development of priorities and measures, and advice on the overall process and approach to the Strategy. In addition, as the only ‘Supporting Authority’ with national oversight NE are are able to share experience and learning from other RAs to inform the development of the Strategy.
**The Nene Park Trust** has been working on some key projects within the Nene Valley over the past 12 months, many of which have focussed on wetland habitat restoration and creation.
At Ferry Meadows work to create a new reed bed area in the margins of Gunwade Lake was completed in September. This involved repurposing 6,000 cubic metres of soil left over from a new car park construction project to create 3,000 square metres
_**The new area of reed bed in the southern margins of Gunwade Lake can be seen from this aerial shot taken earlier this year.**_
_Credit: Chris Park_
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of potential new reed bed and inter-dividing channels in the south east corner of the lake. In addition, 2,500 square metres of new wildflower meadow were created on Poppy Meadow where the soil had been stockpiled, along with a 50 square metre area of new bee bank using some of the residual soil. Once settled and graded to a level below average water depths the new soil bed was transplanted with around 60 clumps of phragmites reed. As this populates the area it will provide refuge and spawning habitat for different species of freshwater fish, nesting and feeding habitat for bird species such as reed warbler, sedge warbler, bearded tit and potentially even bittern, as well as benefitting a whole range of invertebrates and mammals including otters.
_**The new spillway and accompanying boardwalk at West Holmes.**_
Elsewhere, work has started on floodplain meadow restoration on the island called West Holmes (north of Water Newton). Work, including the creation of the foot drains, has already been completed and the appropriate licences have now been received from the Environment Agency to move on to the next stage of the project, which includes the construction of a new spillway to make the meadow wetter and improve the area for wildlife. The Trust aims to maintain access as much as possible through the installation of a boardwalk spanning the spillway enabling access under low flooding as well as normal conditions. These works which commenced at the end of October and due to be completed before the end of the year.
_Credit: Chris Rollason_
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Two new tern rafts have recently been constructed and are due to be launched in November. Common terns bred for the first time in several years on an existing single tern raft this year and it is hoped that the two new additional rafts will build on this success next year.
_**Common terns bred successfully for the first time in several years at Nene Park, and two new tern rafts have been launched on Overton Lake in time for the next breeding season. These rafts provide an important floating habitat and help breeding programmes by providing terns and other birds with a safe space free from disturbance, predation and flooding.**_
_Credit: Felicity Lyons_
At a number of locations around the Park there have been small scale fish-habitat improvements made to the margins of the lake using hinging-and-pinning techniques – a process of part felling selected bankside willows so that they continue to grow along the bank edges and margins of the open water to provide sheltered habitat for fry and young fish as well as invertebrates.
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Further fish habitat works are planned for the coming winter months.
Further to the east of the Trust’s land holding, work has continued in willow succession removal from a wetland area at Ham Mere. Hand cutting and pulling of invasive young willow with teams of staff and volunteers has been ongoing, while staff have also been clearing the perimeter bund around the edge of Heron Scrape at Ham Mere in order to make way for contractors to install a new stock proof fence.
This work, funded through the National Heritage Lottery Fund Your Community Greenspace project, will allow the area to be grazed with appropriate livestock breeds enabling better management of the wetland habitat, which is otherwise difficult to manage with machinery due to poor access and wet ground conditions.
However, unseasonably heavy rainfall experienced in September and October this year created earlier than normal flooding along the Nene Valley. As a result, many of these projects had to be paused until water levels receded and the ground dried sufficiently to allow works to continue safely.
**PECT** is a Peterborough-based charity with a mission to protect and enhance the natural environment. It manages and improves green spaces in and around the city for the benefit of wildlife and people. Over the past 12 months, PECT’s ongoing initiatives have supported nature-recovery and engaged with diverse communities across Cambridgeshire. Exciting new projects are in development, too.
The Forest for Peterborough project, launched in 2010, which has a goal of planting more than 230,000 trees by 2030, has now planted over 131,000 trees. Since 2019, PECT has also created 700 linear meters of micro meadows as part of its Pollinating Peterborough campaign, which promotes the planting of flowers and the creation of habitats for bees and other pollinators.
In July, the lease was secured of a four-acre site, Tweentowns, on the outskirts of Castor, where a tree nursery and wildflower ‘bank’ will be developed. The site will initially function as a ‘holding area’ for native tree species, where whips are kept in readiness for the planting season and grown on to a larger size (1– 3 years) to establish their root systems, increase resilience, and reduce
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failure rates upon planting. The nursery will support PECT’s treeplanting goals.
At Castor, PECT is also working with John Clare Countryside partners and volunteers to create a pond and wildflower meadow and enhance existing hedgerows. In the longer term, Tweentowns will eventually become a place for teaching traditional rural skills, such as hedge laying and scything, and demonstrating nature-friendly land management. PECT has ambitions to establish a small apple orchard too, grafting heritage varieties from local stocks.
Education and outreach programmes continue to be delivered to children and adults, including the Royal Forestry Society’s Junior Forester Award, which educates students about the value of trees and woodland. To date, 51 young people have gained the award. PECT’s Climate Education team is also working with schools to
_**Children and young people in and around Peterborough are learning to value trees and woodland through taking park in the Royal Forestry Society’s Junior Forester Award.**_
_Credit: PECT_
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create School Ground Development plans, zoning outdoor space for nature, play, teaching and learning.
Working in partnership with Nene Valley Hodgson Medical Practice, PECT recently launched Healthy Green Orton. This new initiative refers individuals living with frailty and chronic health conditions to a Green Social Prescriber for tailored, communitybased support. Green social prescribing complements conventional medical treatments, boosting physical and mental wellbeing through outdoor activities such as gardening and nature conservation.
To celebrate the organisation’s 30th anniversary last year, the ‘30 for 30’ funding scheme was launched with a stated goal of awarding 30 grants of between £250 to £1000 to 30 communityled projects within 30 miles of Peterborough. To date, funding has been approved for 47 projects, which are already bearing fruit across the area.
A ‘30 for 30’ grant of £950 supported the purchase of a mulchmaking shredder for Yaxley Community Orchard, while in Ramsey, £250 has made possible a community open day showcasing the biodiversity of Ramsey Quiet Garden. In Werrington, the
_**30 for 30 grants are making a difference where communities want to do more for nature. Here the ground is being prepared for nature recovery at Werrington.**_
_Credit: PECT_
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local environment group has put £356 towards planting a new hedgerow and sowing wildflower seeds.
Other initiatives benefitting from ‘30 for 30’ funding include the proposed installation of a wildlife-friendly totem-pole planter in Ely, youth-led litter picks in Waterbeach, and health and wellbeing walks around Cambridge and Peterborough.
_**Natural Environment lead, Tony Cook can regularly be seen providing briefings and leading community activities about environmental stewardship. Here Tony is giving a tree-planting briefing and providing woodland management training to volunteers from Perkins.**_
_Credit: PECT_
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The **Royal Society for the Protection of Birds** (RSPB) is a significant nature conservation landowner in Cambridgeshire and manages 4,200 ha of land for nature in the county, including substantial reserves at the Ouse Washes, Nene Washes, Fen Drayton Lakes, an expanding area at Ouse Fen (the Hanson/ RSPB Wetland Project) and mixed wetland and woodland at Fowlmere. The former four reserves sit at the core of the Natural Cambridgeshire Connected Fens priority landscape and form the backbone of the RSPB Fens Priority Landscape work up to 2030.
This year has been a busy year with work outside of reserves. Through external funding from The Linder Foundation, the RSPB and the Ely Nature-Friendly Farming Zone were able to develop a bottom-up ten-year strategy that was signed off in Spring 2024. This provides a clear direction for the cluster over the next ten years, focussing actions on elements like ditch management, increasing membership within the group to create a more connected landscape, and public engagement to showcase nature-friendly farming practices. The hope is to baseline all farms within the cluster group in 2025 for breeding birds, pollinators, and water voles, through citizen science and with support from the RSPB’s Volunteer Monitoring of Farm Wildlife (VMFW) Project, the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, and the People’s Trust for Endangered Species.
Engagement work to support farmers, land managers and landowners to provide the three key habitat requirements for turtle doves (nesting habitat, foraging habitat, and accessible water) continues to increase through ‘Operation Turtle Dove’. The RSPB team in Cambridgeshire now engage with 48 stakeholders, covering 51 sites, where there is supplementary feeding and/ or habitat maintenance and enhancement being carried out to support these critically endangered birds. There is now also support from a team of volunteers providing coordination support, deploying and analysing images from trail cameras, and providing habitat creation through the ‘Small Plots Project’. This project, which aims to trial different foraging habitat creation and management techniques on a small-scale for Turtle Doves, has completed its first active year, with six sites now involved going into 2025.
The RSPB’s Volunteer Monitoring for Farm Wildlife Project ran for its fourth year in Cambridgeshire, with 19 volunteers providing breeding bird surveys to 21 farms. All farms recorded species of conservation concern and a total of 1,418 species records were
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added to databases for 94 different species. The data gathered is provided to the farmers via reports and maps to show them the nature they have on their farms with links to species advice to encourage them to implement additional measures to enhance habitats for these species. Going in to 2025, the focus will be to provide bird surveys to members of the Ely nature-friendly farming cluster and to offer this service to other farmers within Cambridgeshire and any other target areas of the county.
_**The Ouse Washes is the largest washland in the UK, and home to thousands of wintering ducks and breeding waders. In early 2024 the feasibility stage of the ambitious Ouse Washes Landscape Recovery Project got underway.**_
_Credit: RSPB_
Following the successful enrolment of the Ouse Washes Landscape Recovery Project with Defra, a two-year feasibility stage started in April 2024. Working across the 4,000 ha landscape, including 2,500 ha of agricultural land, this project aims to secure the management of existing habitat and create at least 1,000 ha of new wetland to support key wetland species. Work is underway to plan habitat creation works, measurement of the benefits that can be delivered for biodiversity, carbon, and water management and to prepare business plans to show how public funding can unlock the private finance necessary to bring the projects to fruition.
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On RSPB reserves, hydrology improvements are already showing results at Fowlmere, as the new sluice allowed water levels to be managed despite an exceedingly wet year. More ditch works will follow this Autumn. Water flow in the River Shep was improved by the removal of silt and for the benefit of brown trout. Marsh harriers bred successfully, together with many of the usual species (except, sadly, turtle dove, which was once a speciality of Fowlmere). The decline of ash trees continues, due to Challara disease, and more tree surgery will be needed in the coming winter.
The Nene Washes were deeply flooded in the winter 2023/24, the counts of 773 Pochard and 831 Tufted Duck were the highest for ten years but still attracted good numbers of Dabbling Duck - the 1062 Pintail was the highest count for 13 years. The Washes remained flooded into the spring and early April. Wetland Bird Survey counts produced a new record of 1267 Shoveler but the area available for nesting waders was greatly reduced and numbers of all species were down. However, the few godwit pairs that were present fledged 9 young, the highest since 2018. The Nene Washes flooded again at the end of September, before the season’s grassland management could be finished, that is three of the last six years grazing seasons requiring an emergency evacuation.
The Ouse Washes once again suffered from spring flooding lasting into June, highlighting the crucial role that floodfree habitat creation plays outside of the Ouse Washes in providing safe nesting areas for Snipe and Black-tailed Godwits. Spoonbills returning to breed in Cambridgeshire was the big news story when three pairs nested, successfully rearing eight chicks alongside 24 Great Egret nests!
_**While Spoonbills are rare breeding birds in the UK, they have returned and are breeding in Cambridgeshire, it is thought for the first time since the 17th Century.**_
_Credit: RSPB_
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A solar pumping project successfully brought improved water levels back to wetland scrapes at Fen Drayton Lakes, which it is hoped could draw Lapwing and Redshank back to breed in small numbers.
At Ouse Fen the very successful relationship with Hanson UK/Heidelberg Materials came to an end in May with Brice Aggregates taking over quarry operations and the development of the growing nature reserve. The reserve holds a growing population of Bitterns with 12 males booming this year. With a summering Great Reed Warbler also present, the RSPB’s Ouse Valley reserves are regularly attracting new wetland species to breed.
**The Wildlife Trust** BCN continues to take a landscape approach to nature conservation work and is actively involved in all six priority landscapes, with some of this work described in the previous sections. This approach spans all aspects of the Trust’s work, including managing and acquiring nature reserves, providing land advice to farmers, landowners and businesses, engaging with communities through family events, education activities and supporting local communities and individuals to take action for wildlife on their own patch. A nature recovery network requires that the best, core nature sites that support many of our iconic and rarest or declining species continue to be well-managed. The Wildlife Trust therefore continues to invest in the management of its nature reserves including restoration of habitats where required.
The acquisition of Speechleys Farm at the Great Fen will allow the Wildlife Trust and Natural England to raise water levels in the sub-catchment to the west of Woodwalton Fen with the Trust creating a variety of new wetland habitats. Restoration will begin in earnest in 2025. The visitor hub at New Decoy Farm has been designed and has received planning permission with construction planned to start in 2025.
In the _Cambridge Nature Network_ the Wildlife Trust has commenced habitat creation on land purchased adjacent to Fleam Dyke. The successful application for a loan from the Natural Cambridgeshire Fund for Nature will help to meet habitat creation and infrastructure costs, with the aim of paying the loan back through future Biodiversity Unit sales.
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In _John Clare Countryside_ the Wildlife Trust has completed the initial nature network opportunity mapping for the project area and also drafted high-level nature recovery objectives.
Restoration management continues in the Trust’s ancient woodland nature reserves within the _West Cambridgeshire Hundreds_ . At Waresely and Gransden Woods the restoration of the main ride has continued creating a less shaded and better drained surface which will hopefully revegetate as well as provide a better surface for visitors.
The Wildlife Trust has prepared an interim Nature Network report for Huntingdonshire District Council. This together with previous reports for East Cambridgeshire and Fenland will help inform the statutory Local Nature Recovery Strategy as well as support local action by the council, landowners, businesses and communities.
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## **5. Acknowledgments**
This report was edited by **Helen Dye** and **Peter Landshoff** . Thank you to those who contributed to it:
**Richard Astle Jo Finlow Martin Baker Megan Hudson Georgie Barber Richard Kay Guy Belcher Rory Kerr Macbradan Bones James Littlewood Helen Boothman Andrew Marriott Duncan Bridges Gareth Martin Philip Clark Nick Massey Mike Drew Urselle Mumford Helen Driver John O’Boyle**
**Emma Ormond-Bones Frances Payne Maggie Pratt Daniel Pullan Elizabeth Ranelagh Phil Rothwell Sarah Sanderson Philip Thomas John Torlesse Luke Waddington**
Email: info@naturalcambridgeshire.org.uk Website: **www.naturalcambridgeshire.org.uk**
Natural Cambridgeshire is a registered charity (Charitable Incorporated Organsation) in England and Wales no.1193040. Registered address: Ham Farm House, Ham Lane, Peterborough, PE2 5UU
> © 2024 Natural Cambridgeshire. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be published without prior permission. design : wyrecreative.uk
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J.A
Natural
Cambridgeshl
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putting nature at the heart
NOVEMBER 2024
## **Introduction**
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough continues to be one of the most nature depleted areas in the country, with an estimated 8% of land managed for nature comparable to an average 16%. In 2019, working with our Partners, the Doubling Nature Vision for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough was launched.
The Vision, which was endorsed by all local authorities in our area, included ambitions to:
**1. Deliver significant protection, restoration, and enhancement of key wildlife habitats for the landscape we know and love;**
**2. Create healthy communities in healthy environments. Improved green space and access to nature will help people to enjoy and appreciate the nature around them, leading to healthier and happier lives;**
**3. Create a more resilient countryside and communities, where nature is at the heart of our approach to tackling the climate emergency;**
**4. Raise levels of local pride, aspiration, and community cohesion by helping communities to understand, appreciate and enjoy their natural environment;**
**5. Support a green transport infrastructure, where priority is given to walkers, cyclists, and riders;**
**6. Pilot and champion best practice sustainable development in all aspects of future development;**
**7. Produce new jobs and economic opportunities allied to the delivery of these objectives;**
**8. Influence environmentally friendly farming practices, sustainable tourism, and recreational activities.**
The report includes a review of our activities for the period from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.
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## **Chair’s report**
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Professor Martin Doel CBE Chair of trustees
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From the point at which I stepped into the role of Chair of Natural Cambridgeshire, I have been constantly impressed by the passion, knowledge and dedication of all involved in our Local Nature Partnership. If I had a worry at the outset, it was that this passion, knowledge and dedication might lead to conflicting priorities and unhelpful rivalries.
With a year’s experience in the role, I am absolutely sure that this is not the case and this owes much I think to two factors: first, the power of the “Doubling Nature” vision that was put in place by my predecessor, as Chair, Richard Astle and our Board colleagues and, second, the support we have received from a range of agencies and individuals, not least our Mayor and the Combined Authority (CPCA), as well as local councils, non-governmental organisations including environmental charities such as the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire, the RSPB and the National Trust, and critically landowners from the Fens to the Cambridgeshire Hundreds and all between.
To bring this range of agencies and individuals together in a positive and constructive way, points to the convening power of Natural Cambridgeshire. We need now to use this convening power to form an even stronger consensus for action to preserve, protect and promote our natural environment. The twin pillars that will shape this action will be the emerging Local Natural Recovery Strategy (LNRS) and the existing Doubling Nature vision.
In the case of the former, Natural Cambridgeshire has taken a leading role under the auspices of the County Council and the co-chairing of our Director Pamela Abbot. In the case of the latter, we have just made our first allocations from the Doubling Nature Fund provided by the CPCA, under the stewardship of our Partnership Director, Helen Dye.
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Beyond the LNRS and the Doubling Nature Fund, a key task for us in the year ahead will be to provide a baseline upon which to evaluate progress with a comprehensive, yet accessible State of Nature Report.
So, while there is still so much to do to recover and sustain nature in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, my firm belief is that Natural Cambridgeshire is extremely well positioned to lead, enthuse, enable and shape this vital work.
## **Professor Martin Doel CBE**
Chair, Natural Cambridgeshire
## **Natural Cambridgeshire trustees 2023/24**
## **Chair**
Professor Martin Doel CBE
**Vice-chair**
Rebecca Britton (Interim)
## **Treasurer**
Hon. Matthew Bullock
## **Secretary**
Dr Roger Mitchell
Richard Astle Martin Baker Matthew Bradbury Tom Clarke (resigned March 2024) Tim Breitmeyer DL Cllr Pippa Heylings Professor Peter Landshoff Hannah Phillips (resigned December 2023) Rachel Steward John Torlesse Rob Wise
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## **Operational Overview**
## **Our board and our organisation**
In 2023/24, Natural Cambridgeshire’s fourth year as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, the trustee board (page 4) met four times to manage responsibilities for governance, to set the strategic direction of the organisation and to agree priorities for action. During the year we welcomed our new Chair, Professor Martin Doel CBE, who has begun to galvanise and provide leadership to the organisation as we continue to champion our Doubling Nature ambitions and ensure nature considerations remain at the heart of decision-making across the county. Advisors to the board included: Adrian Cannard, Strategic Planning Manager for the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority; and James Littlewood, Chief Executive Officer, Cambridge Past Present and Future. Our two parttime executive officers, Pamela Abbott and Helen Dye, undertook to turn vision and strategy into action.
Our role in advocacy for biodiversity and for the benefits of biodiversity, including for public health and well-being, climate adaptation, cleaner air, improved water quality and availability, healthier soils and flood risk mitigation during 2023-24 continued. Over the year the main areas of focus were on working with stakeholders towards the implementation of the Environment Act 2021, specifically the introduction of Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) and the development of a Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) for our area, in addition to attending to Cambridgeshire and Peterborough specific challenges relating to water, peat and agriculture. Our role in providing direct resources through social investment loans and grants from our Fund for Nature commenced as we asked potential projects to come forwards.
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## **Activities**
Notwithstanding delays from Defra in releasing Guidance and Regulations for the development of Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRSs) and the introduction of the requirement for Biodiversity Net Gain on all new developments, via our Memorandum of Understanding with Cambridgeshire County Council we cracked on with working with our local authorities and other environmental stakeholders to provide leadership and support in these areas.
n Drawing on our extensive networks across the county and our ability to convene and facilitate broad stakeholder groups, we worked with Cambridgeshire County Council to convene an LNRS visioning workshop for 50 stakeholder participants in May 2023. From the workshop emerged the potential of the LNRS to be instrumental in helping to develop a new narrative for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough in the face of climate and other environmental pressures, with particular reference to the fragility of our lowland peat soils, and the future viability of agriculture and its role in providing food for the nation.
n **The Natural Environment Policy and Planning Forum** , which is a county-wide grouping for local authority ecology and planning officers convened by Natural Cambridgeshire in collaboration with Cambridgeshire County Council and the Combined Authority to share information and exchange knowledge, met quarterly. The Forum also includes participation from environmental charities, farmer representatives and community organisations where themes of biodiversity and its centrality to the future health and prosperity of our communities are discussed. The group has taken on a development role for the LNRS and much of its recent focus has also been on the implementation of biodiversity net gain. We are grateful to the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Mathematical Sciences for hosting many of these meetings.
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- n We continued to build momentum around the six identified priority landscapes for investment in nature recovery including the associated benefits for human health and well-being and other eco-system services, via individual LRNS preparedness meetings with the organisations leading on those landscape projects.
_**The River Great Ouse at Earith, where considerations for balancing biodiversity, recreational use and managing flood risk all have a role to play.**_
- n Natural Cambridgeshire’s Director, Pamela Abbott, took on the role of co-chair of the LNRS Steering Group, and we developed and implemented an LNRS Stakeholder Engagement and Communications Plan. Working with Natural England and County Council colleagues this included familiarising our district and city authorities, environmental charities, farmers and other land managers, and communities with the opportunities that the development of an LNRS will bring. This also included giving presentations to Council member groupings across our area.
- n As part of LNRS development activities, in the spring of 2024 we developed a new relationship with Cambridgeshire Libraries Service, including engaging the public in conversations about Nature Recovery at library events, and also at the Cambridge Imaginarium held on the lawn at Kings College, Cambridge in March 2024 and which attracted over 2,000 visitors.
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Our own organisational endeavours to provide financial assistance to projects seeking to Double Nature, took the form of beginning to set-up and operationalise the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fund for Nature.
Following the call for Expressions of Interests for landscape projects to come forward in Autumn 2022 and the identification of the first three beneficiary projects in Spring 2023, we have been negotiating the release of monies with our funder to support the implementation of these projects and working with legal advisors to develop funding agreements to disburse monies to projects (ongoing). Similarly, following the call for applications to our Community Small Grants Scheme in autumn of 2023, with the first beneficiaries identified in February 2024, we anticipate funds will be disbursed to successful projects in late 2024.
To assist in resolving water resource management and supply issues faced by our county we took a strategic lead in discussions with the water sector, this included: making specific contributions for the case for agricultural (nonpublic) water supply; identifying, developing and lobbying for measures to ensure available funding for on-farm water storage (ongoing); and ensuring that the fragility of the future or our lowland peat soils were front and central to discussions. Discussions with Defra, the Environment Agency, Ofwat, Anglian Water, Cambridge Water and Water Resources East remain ongoing, and we are developing a closer relationship with the Internal Drainage Boards that manage water levels in the Fens.
In recognition of the increasing importance of water for habitat conservation, restoration and creation, including on farmed land, we undertook an audit and gap analysis of farmer clusters. We worked with farmer representatives, including the National Farmers Union (NFU), the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group East (FWAG East), and other key landowners and farm cluster facilitators to seek their input and advocated the benefits of an LNRS to agriculture, and to identify where we can best add value to support farm cluster development. Officers and trustees also
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attended key conferences including the IUCN’s Annual UK Peat Conference held at Ely Maltings, and a conference organised by FenlandSOIL, also at Ely Maltings.
In partnership with Fenland District Council and community partners including CambsACRE, PECT, Cambridgeshire Skills, Clarion Housing and the University of Cambridgeshire’s Centre for Landscape Regeneration, in July 2023 we convened a community ‘Nature Surgery’ day in the market town of March, which was funded by our ‘Together for our Planet’ Community Fund grant. In addition to providing direct advice and assistance at a grassroots level, this has also helped to inform how we can better support the role our Local Nature Recovery Toolkit to Parish Councils and local community groups.
_**Advice and assistance about actions for nature that can be taken locally was provided to local council and community representatives at a Nature Surgery Day, jointly hosted by Natural Cambridgeshire and Fenland District Council.**_
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Our quarterly **Partnership Forum** expert briefings were held for the broader nature community on specialist subject areas relating to nature, biodiversity and landscape improvements, including regular updates on LNRS development and how people can get involved. These online events attracted between 40-100 participants.
## **Partnership Forum, some of our Topics and Speakers 2023-24**
**Iconic species of Cambridgeshire** Kevin Hand (Ecologist)
**Prickles the Hedgehog: Nature Recovery and Public Engagement** Richard Kay (East Cambs District Council)
**Barn Owls**
Emma Ormond-Bones (National Trust)
**Frogs and Toads** James McAdie (Froglife)
**Species monitoring with community volunteers** Howard Jones (Cambridgeshire ACRE)
## **Why nature needs volunteers**
Tony Winchester (Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust)
**Progress with climate change in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough** Dr Nik Johnson (Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough)
**Why farmers care about nature** Tom Clarke (Farmer)
## **Community Projects**
Helen Dye (Natural Cambridgeshire)
**A Local Nature Recovery Strategy for Cambridgeshire & Peterborough** Gabriella Yoemans (Cambridgeshire County Council)
**Biodiversity for All** Nick Massey (Huntingdonshire District Council)
**Libraries engaging with the public on environment issues** Anna McMahon (Cambridgeshire County Council)
**What should we do to prepare for climate change?** Adrian Cannard (Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority)
**Cambridgeshire Grasshoppers – Past, Present and Future** Pamela Abbott (Natural Cambridgeshire)
**Tracking our summer migrant birds to understand population declines** Chris Hewson (British Trust for Ornithology)
**A perspective on Cambridgeshire chalk streams** Rob Mungovan (Wild Trout Trust)
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We collated and published our annual _‘State of Nature in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough – A Report of the Partnership’,_ which this year included contributions from over 30 organisations from across the county.
We contributed through our active participation as a partner, member, advisor or stakeholder in key Cambridgeshire projects and initiatives including: the University of Cambridgeshire’s Centre for Landscape Regeneration’s Fenland Advisory Board; the Fens 2,100+ grouping convened by the Environment Agency to quantify investment in water management assets in the Fens; Fens for the Future; the Fenland Water Partnership which is developing proposals for a new national infrastructure project – a reservoir near Chatteris; and Water Resources East’s Strategic Advisory Group.
We continued to our membership of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Climate Programme Board and input into the development and implementation of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Climate Action Plan.
Strategic relations with neighbouring Local Nature Partnerships were strengthened, including jointly signing letters to Ministers to lobby for funding to support national nature recovery activities,
Our a weekly news digest of the latest international, national and local research, news and events relating the state of nature and the pressures of climate change is now circulated to over 700 contacts across the county.
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## **Financial overview**
||**Year Ending**
**March 2023**|**Year Ending**
**March 2024**|**Difference**|
|---|---|---|---|
|**Incoming**
**resources**|**£80,880**|**£103,653**|**+£22,773**|
|**Resources**
**expended**|**£62,368**|**£91,414**|**+£29,046**|
|**Closing**
**reserves**|**£43,436**|**£55,675**|**+£12,239**|
|**Comprising:**||||
|**Restricted**
**funds to be**
**carried over**
**to the next**
**year**|**£12,076**|**£8,097**|**-£3,979**|
|**Unrestricted**
**reserves**|**£43, 436**|**£55,675**|**+£12,239**|
For the period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, we increased our income to £103,653 (£80,880 in 2022/23) and increased our expenses to £91,414 (£62,368 in 2022/23). Our overall financial position has been strengthened with the agreement to fund our running costs over three years from the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA), instead of the annual grants from several local authorities in the county. This agreement, in its second year for the period of this report, supported an increase in policy staff time, which in turn led to further policy activities, including: an agreement with CPCA to launch an investment fund and a grants scheme to support projects for nature; and via a Memorandum of Understanding with Cambridgeshire County Council the provision of strategic assistance in developing the Local Nature Recovery Strategy for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
Charity and corporate donations totalling £4,500 were received. The residue of a grant of £9,750 received from the National Lottery Community Fund in 2021/22 was carried
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over at £8,097 to 2023/24. Of our total income, 98% was unrestricted and 2% was restricted.
Our greatest expense – 81% of our total expenditure – related to staff, both of whom worked at home or in external meetings, thereby saving premises costs. We will develop a simple method of allocating their time between separate policy activities and governance expenditure. The substantial contributions of time given by individual trustees remain uncosted. We were also supported by: Nene Park Trust for employment and payroll services; Natural England, the Cambridge Conservation Initiative, Wildlife Trust BCN, Nene Park Trust and the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Mathematical Sciences for hosting our board and other meetings. Balancing Act provide our book-keeping services and Coles Accounting provide our auditing services.
A surplus of £12,238 (£18,511 in 2022/23) was achieved during the year and reserves of £55,675 were carried over to the following year. Cash balances at the year-end were £71,209 (£58,274 in 2022/23).
**----- Start of picture text -----**
2% [1%]
Income Expenditure
16%
Salaries, NI and Pension
Office costs
81%
Projects
Communications
2%
4%
Income by Donor Type
Local Authorities
Donations
94%
Lottery
**----- End of picture text -----**
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## **Donors and supporters Donors and supporters**
Contributions towards running costs which have enabled the organisation to continue to employ a part-time director (from September 2022) and a part-time co-ordinator, have been gratefully received from:
## **Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority National Trust**
## **Natural England**
## **Nene Park Trust**
## **RSPB**
## **Urban&Civic**
**Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire**
**Photo credits:** Photographs are reproduced with the kind permissions of Roger Mitchell, Helen Dye, Becca Britton/Urban & Civic and Ron Donaldson/ Ecology of Knowledge.
Email: info@naturalcambridgeshire.org.uk Website: **www.naturalcambridgeshire.org.uk**
Natural Cambridgeshire is a registered charity (Charitable Incorporated Organsation) in England and Wales no.1193040. Registered address: c/o Nene Park Trust, Ham Farm House, Ham Lane, Peterborough, PE2 5UU
© 2024 Natural Cambridgeshire. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be published without prior permission. design : wyrecreative.uk
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