Drought is top threat for UK nature refuges as climate changes, charities warn

Drought is now the biggest threat to important sites for nature across the UK as the climate changes, a report from The Wildlife Trusts has warned.

The report examining the dangers posed to nature reserves cared for by the trusts also points to pollution, invasive species and habitat fragmentation as key current risks to wildlife in woods, peatlands, wetlands, coastal areas and grasslands.

Over the next 30 years, Wildlife Trusts experts believe drought will continue to pose the biggest threat to their reserves, with other climate-driven risks including heatwaves and wildfires also causes for high concern.

The network of local wildlife charities – which together are one of the UK’s biggest landowners with 2,600 reserves totalling nearly 100,000 hectares – say they are taking steps to adapt to climate threats across habitats they look after.

But they are urging the Government to commit at least £3 billion a year to invest in helping nature adapt and for nature-based solutions to climate change such as restoring the UK’s temperate rainforest and natural flood defences – in addition to funding for the nature-friendly farming programme.

They also want to see the new Government unblock policies that were delayed under the previous administration, including bringing in a ban on peat use in horticulture, licences for wild beaver releases, and boosting regulation and enforcement for pollution into rivers, to improve nature’s resilience.

And the Government is being urged to maintain the sandeel fishing ban in the North Sea , which is under pressure from the EU, as a key piece of resilience for marine wildlife which depend on the fish.

The report comes as the world sees record-breaking heat, with temperatures 1.5C above pre-industrial levels for a full year for the first time, and with the UK suffering from extreme weather swings, from a very dry 2022 with temperatures topping 40C to an extremely wet winter in 2023/24.

The Wildlife Trusts surveyed conservationists working across the network to find out about the threats nature reserves are facing, and they identified drought as the leading current threat to wildlife, with 90% of those asked warning it was having negative impacts on nature now.

That puts it ahead of other threats, such as pollution, which was named by 80% of the conservationists, invasive species (73%) and habitat fragmentation (62%).

When it comes to the risk facing reserves over the next 30 years, drought was still considered to be the leading threat, named by 91% of those asked, while climate-driven heatwaves were flagged up by 89% and wildfire by 70%.

The Wildlife Trusts warned that flooding, rather than drought, is often at the top of the list of hazards that politicians and governments use to discuss climate impacts.

Drought planning needs more urgent attention alongside the other key hazards associated with climate change, the report urges.

The report also warns that even on a trajectory of only 2C of warming by 2100, in the next 25 years almost half of the trusts’ reserves will be in areas of extreme wildfire risk and three-quarters will see summer temperatures more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

The UK’s natural habitats, and the wildlife that depends on them, are under huge pressure so it’s vital that the UK Government raises ambition on adapting to climate change

More than half could see their rivers’ lowest flows dropping by an additional 30%, while river flooding is projected to increase significantly in western regions.

Adapting to the changing climate is no longer “simply a long-term concern; it is immediate and potentially high impact”, the report warns.

To protect against worsening extremes, The Wildlife Trusts say they are taking action across their reserves to make these important habitats for nature more resilient to the changing climate.

Hertfordshire and Middlesex Wildlife Trust, whose Lemsford Springs nature reserve’s spring-fed cress beds alongside the River Lea provide habitat for the highest congregation of green sandpipers in the UK, is working to protect internationally important chalk streams against impacts including drought.

The Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire has connected Holme Fen and Woodwalton Fen national nature reserves with 134 hectares of restored peatland on former degraded farmland, linking up habitat and ensuring it stores more carbon in times of drought.

Manx Wildlife Trust has planted 8,000 trees to create new temperate rainforest at Creg y Cowin, with plans to plant a further 27,000 over the next four years, to create a cool, damp refuge for creatures away from extreme temperatures.

Kathryn Brown, director of climate change and evidence at The Wildlife Trusts, said: “The Wildlife Trusts are taking action to adapt to climate threats across all our land and marine habitats through helping nature to recover, slowing the flow of rivers, and restoring peatlands.

“This, in turn, supports wildlife and people to be more resilient to drought, wildfire, heatwaves and flooding.

“Nature-based solutions are now nature-based necessities, and we must all embrace the role that nature can play in enabling landscapes to adapt.”

She added: “We’ve seen one climate record after another broken over the past 12 months.

“The UK’s natural habitats, and the wildlife that depends on them, are under huge pressure so it’s vital that the UK Government raises ambition on adapting to climate change.”

A Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs spokesperson said: “We are tackling the nature crisis that we have inherited by making sure we have the right plans in place to deliver our ambitious targets to save nature, clean up our waterways and increase resilience to drought.

“We will better protect our landscapes and wildlife by taking robust action to prepare for the impacts of a changing climate.”