Godwit Futures Project awarded £400,000 to bolster endangered waders
The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust Godwit Futures project is among those that have today been awarded a share of an incredible £14.5m from Natural England to revive England's endangered species.
Godwit Futures, which secured £400,000, will help to transform the future of black-tailed godwits in England by establishing a captive breeding population.
The new scheme comes just as Project Godwit, our seven-year collaboration with the RSPB and EU LIFE, comes to a close.
Project Godwit, which raised endangered black-tailed godwits in captivity and improved their breeding grounds on the Nene and Ouse Washes, has boosted the breeding population of the species, one the UK’s rarest breeding waders, by an incredible 40%.
Our new project will allow us to headstart more of these endangered waders, as well as supplying birds for future reintroduction projects, re-establishing the species in areas in which it has become extinct.
It will also bolster the current UK godwit population by rearing and releasing 20 fledglings into the Fens in 2024.
As a member of the newly formed UK Black-tailed Godwit Working Group WWT has also been working with the RSPB and Natural England on a 10 year action plan detailing what work is needed to save this species in the UK.
This grant will help us fulfil some of the commitments of this action plan, doing some of the foundational work needed to re-establish godwits throughout the UK.
26 Sept 2023
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