UK Nature and Environment

Communities across Scotland are transforming parks, hospital grounds and community gardens into nature-friendly spaces to help bees, hoverflies and other pollinating insects, according to a new report by NatureScot.

The seventh Pollinator Strategy Progress Report details the work being done by individuals, local authorities, environmental groups, researchers and particularly community groups across the country in support of the Pollinator Strategy for Scotland.

Pollinators are vital for our biodiversity and play a critical role in our food and farming industries, but their populations face challenges due to land use intensification, habitat loss, diseases, pesticides and climate change.

Five of the UK's oldest breed of pony have been reintroduced to the Surrey countryside.

The young Exmoor ponies have been released at Hindhead Commons and Devil's Punch Bowl, which is popular with hikers.

The project is part of the National Trust's conservation efforts in the area.

A wildlife trust has joined forces with 215 local councillors to protect chalk streams.

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and the councillors have sent an open letter to the Government, urging for stronger protections for these streams in planning policy.

This comes after reports that the Government has shelved the Chalk Stream Recovery Pack, an initiative to protect these habitats.

“London is a green city, but we can definitely do more,” says Wilder director Leanne Werner, adding that “people do want to see more green spaces”.

Leanne was previously a Labour councillor for Southwark and has also worked for the charity sector.

In her past work, she previously chaired a commission looking at how to reduce air pollution. She began reading more about the biodiversity and ecological emergency – “and how we’re at a checkpoint”.

An exotic crab has been found in British waters for the first time after travelling 4,000 miles across the Atlantic on a piece of polystyrene.

The short-spined hairy crab was found on Chesil Beach, near Weymouth, Dorset by naturalist Steve Trewhella.

The animal is usually found in warm waters such as the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico but was washed up in the UK on a polystyrene shellfish buoy from Florida Keys.

With a surge of humpback whale sightings in January and February, and World Whale Day on Sunday 16th February, let’s take a closer look at some of the incredible whale species that visit our waters.

Whales are some of the most majestic and awe-inspiring creatures on Earth. And we have more in common than you might think. Just like us, they’re mammals, meaning they breathe air and nurse their young with milk. Some species even display culture and emotion - such as orcas seen wearing salmon as "hats" or whales appearing to grieve for family members. Highly intelligent, they use clicks and sounds to communicate, navigate, and hunt. But these incredible animals face serious threats, including vehicle collisions, overfishing, and pollution.

Alexandra Bulgakova, our Seasearch Data Analyst said: “World Whale Day serves as a timely reminder of the incredible role whales play in maintaining the health of our ocean.

People on the Isle of Man have been encouraged to join organised beach cleans ahead of nesting season to help to protect chicks from plastic pollution.

Beach Buddies founder Bill Dale said volunteers would concentrate their efforts on beaches "where thousands of seabirds lay their eggs each year".

He said evidence suggested rubbish left on the beach could be "mistaken by birds for food, which can then be fed to their chicks".

A group of celebrities have written an open letter to restaurant chain Nando's asking for proof that it is not contributing to pollution in the River Wye.

Actor and river conservationist Jim Murray is one of the group that has signed the letter, which accuses one of the restaurant's suppliers of dumping waste into the river.

Murray said the restaurant must do more to prove its environmental credentials.

Nandos denies polluting the river and says its direct supplier has said that "no manure is spread, stored or otherwise disposed of" on any of the chicken farms it sources from.

Rare freshwater wildlife is making a remarkable comeback in the Brecks, thanks to an innovative collaboration between us and partners to rediscover and restore ancient Ice Age ponds.

Most ponds are man-made features, but in the Brecks there are some truly ancient ponds and depressions, often known collectively as ‘pingos’, which originated through natural glacial processes at the end of the last Ice Age, over 10,000 years ago. ‘Ghost’ pingos are pingos that have been filled in by humans, normally to facilitate larger scale agricultural production.

University College London (UCL), Norfolk Geodiversity Partnership and the Norfolk Ponds Project have been working with us to locate and re-excavate buried pingo ponds hidden beneath farmland. The project was part of the Brecks Fen Edge and Rivers Landscape Partnership scheme, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Stunning footage has been captured of a humpback whale breaching off the coast of Newquay.

The whale put on a spectacular show for about 35 minutes on Thursday, leaving onlookers in awe.

Ian Boreham, who filmed the breaches, described the experience as "absolutely incredible".

"It was quite a life experience, really, to see one of those," he said.

A wildlife expert says he is concerned about a sudden drop in sightings of porpoises on the north Wales coast.

Mick Green, manager of the Bardsey Marine Mammal Project - which monitors the marine mammals around Bardsey Island, Gwynedd - said fisheries and fishing nets could be the reason for the decline.

After using drones for the first time, the project's recent survey reported a 10% decline in the number of sightings of porpoises per hour.

New colonies of the UK's fastest declining mammal species have been discovered in the uplands of south Wales.

Usually found across riverbanks in Wales, water voles have now taken up habitat in the valleys, which could help prevent their local extinction.

Robert Parry, chief executive of the Initiative for Nature Conservation Cymru (INCC), described the discovery as "huge".

Speaking to BBC Radio Wales Breakfast, he said: "We didn't know they were up there, they're on the verge of extinction, we've been looking for them for decades."

To most people driving through the waterlogged fields of West Sussex, a patch of muddy land dotted with scrubby trees would not warrant a second glance. But this former farmland is being given a new lease of life as part of a government scheme to boost wildlife.

Ardingly habitat bank is one of the pilot sites for the biodiversity net gain (BNG) scheme. Under legislation that came into force in February 2024, new roads, houses and other building projects must achieve a 10% net gain in biodiversity if nature is damaged on a site. So if a forest is bulldozed to make way for a block of flats, the developer must recreate a similar habitat, plus 10%.

But there are concerns the policy may not achieve what it promised. One year in, an assessment suggests it has so far delivered less than half the minimum amount of habitat expected. Can it be made to work?

A contraption that skims litter from water has been put to the test in a city's river to check for microplastics.

The seabin was floated in the River Nene in Peterborough to extract debris, particularly microscopic particles which cannot be seen by the naked eye.

Similar to the way fish tank filtration works, the seabin contains a pump and traps anything floating in the water in a mesh bag, which can then be emptied and analysed for pollutants.

A rare fungus included in a list of the world's most threatened species has been discovered at a reservoir.

The willow blister fungus, also known as Cryptomyces maximus, was found on a coppiced willow tree at Rutland Water during a bat box survey by an officer from Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust.

It was only the second recording in England since 1876 of the spotty fungus, which was previously known from just a handful of sites in Pembrokeshire, Wales.

A sample was taken to the trust's volunteer training centre for formal identification, which was confirmed by a mycologist from London's Kew Gardens.

A new study has found well-managed solar farms can make an important contribution to nature as well as "provide relief from the effects of agricultural intensification".

The report, from the RSPB and the University of Cambridge, was published on Wednesday in the journal Bird Study and looked at two types of solar farms in the East Anglian Fens.

Scientists found that solar farms had a greater number of species and individual birds per hectare than the surrounding arable land.

Eight wildcats are in the process of being paired up for a fourth consecutive breeding season in the Saving Wildcats conservation breeding for release centre, off-show at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland’s (RZSS) Highland Wildlife Park.

Wildcat pairs Embo and Torr, Fergus and Morag, Mallachie and Skye and Oscar and Margaret are all integral to the future of the critically endangered Scottish wildcat population. It is hoped that any kittens that they have, which will likely be born later in the spring, could eventually be released into the Cairngorms National Park following time in bespoke enclosures designed to prepare wildcats for the challenges of life in the wild.

Estelle Morgan, Saving Wildcats ex-situ animal team leader said “It is great to see the breeding season is well underway at the centre. Monitoring the wildcats during this time is very interesting – typically the females set the boundaries, meaning the males can behave quite nervously around them.

Careful design could help new woodlands thrive in areas where beavers are present, according to a new report.

With ambitious woodland expansion targets in Scotland and a growing beaver population, the overlap between beaver territories and woodland creation schemes is expected to become more common.

The research by NatureScot and the Beaver Trust draws on international expertise, as well as case studies in Scotland, to make recommendations for how to establish resilient new woodlands in areas where beavers live.

Beavers typically forage within 20m of a river or loch shore and are known to be choosy eaters with a preference for certain species, including willow, aspen, hazel, birch and rowan.

Offshore wind development is essential and urgent, but this emerging industry needs to be ‘nature positive’ from the get-go

Here in Scotland, we have a tendency to think that spectacular and important wildlife is for other parts of the world to enjoy and worry about. Australia has the Great Barrier Reef, Africa has lions, Antarctica has penguins... What do we have?

Well, Scotland is a mecca for the world’s seabirds. From the spectacular and riotous gannet colonies to the colourful and cute puffins nesting in their burrows, we are fortunate enough to share our seas and coasts with enormous colonies of globally important seabirds. If you haven’t yet enjoyed the spectacle of a colony at the height of the breeding season, get yourself on a boat around the Bass Rock now!

Thames Water is being investigated by the water regulator for England and Wales, Ofwat, after the struggling company delayed environmental improvement schemes.

The investigation was launched after the Guardian revealed that the UK’s largest water company intentionally diverted millions of pounds pledged for environmental clean-ups towards other costs, including bonuses and dividends.

Ofwat opened an enforcement case into Thames Water to decide whether the company breached its obligations in failing to deliver 100 out of 812 schemes it was supposed to put in place between 2020 and 2025.

The government’s wildlife watchdog for England is failing to halt the decline of nature after a sharp fall in the number of new places given top protection, according to campaigners.

On average over the past 15 years, Natural England has designated four new sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) each year. SSSIs are nationally or internationally important places for rare wildlife and habitats, meet strict criteria and are then usually protected from almost all possible development.

But in the past three financial years up to and including 2023-24, Natural England has designated just two new sites.

A new study has shown that overall there have been increases in the ability of nature to contribute to our wellbeing, with marked improvements in agricultural habitats and the number of people spending time in nature, compared to 2000 levels.

The biennial Natural Capital Asset Index (NCAI) looks at how Scotland’s stock of habitats and ecosystems – the country’s natural capital - provides social, environmental and economic benefits to people, tracking annual changes in our ecosystems’ abilities to contribute to the health of Scotland’s food, water, air and communities. The Index reports on areas of improvement and deterioration, taking in a range of factors like aesthetic and cultural value, air purification, carbon sequestration and timber resources. In total, calculations track 38 indicators across seven Scottish habitat types: coastal; inland surface water; mires, bogs and fen; grasslands; heathland; woodland; agricultural and cultivated lands.

The 2025 NCAI shows that the ability of agricultural habitats to benefit people has been improving since 2018. This is largely due to efforts by farmers to reduce their impacts on the environment through participation in agri-environmental schemes and reducing the use of fertiliser and pesticides. These actions taken by farmers directly improve the ability of agricultural and cultivated habitats to deliver benefits to people across Scotland.

A new grant scheme has been launched to help plant more trees and hedgerows across Westmorland and Furness.

The Community Tree and Hedgerow Planting Grant is part of the area's One Tree per Resident (OTpR) project.

This initiative, led by Westmorland and Furness Council, aims to plant a quarter of a million trees over five years.

Two fisherman have rescued a humpback whale found entangled in creel fishing gear off the coast of Skye.

The creel fishermen had been fishing further south when they received a report of the entangled whale on Sunday.

A single rope had become anchored around the tail of the humpback.

Beavers can play a role in tackling flooding, a new assessment from the Environment Agency on how nature can help address floods has said.

The updated directory summarises the latest evidence for the flood and coastal erosion benefits of 17 natural measures – from river restoration to woodlands in catchments and along water courses, and managing saltmarshes and sand dunes.

The Environment Agency said it is “mainstreaming” the use of natural flood management alongside the use of traditional engineered defences, with a £25 million programme as part of the £2.65 billion two-year flood defences package recently announced by the Government.