Wildlife and Countryside Link has welcomed a Supreme Court judgment upholding the Habitats Regulations. In today’s judgment in C G Fry & Son Ltd v SSCLG and another the Supreme Court confirmed that public authorities must carry out an “appropriate assessment” for development proposals that may harm wildlife sites protected under the Habitats Regulations at all relevant stages of the planning process. 

The ruling makes clear that the Habitats Regulations provide continuing protection for sites of international and national importance throughout the development process. By rejecting arguments that duties to assess environmental impacts are limited to the earliest stages of planning, the Court has ensured that nature protection remains a live duty throughout the entire planning consent procedure.

However, the judgment also said that different rules apply to Ramsar Sites (globally important wetlands). Government policy in the form of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) offers Ramsar sites the same level of policy protection as the Habitats Regulations. However, the judgment stated that “the Court of Appeal erred in giving a statement of policy… the same status and force as a legal rule set out in legislation” (para 60).

A new proposal from a group of peers could disarm the most damaging aspect of the Planning & Infrastructure Bill and reduce the risks that it currently poses to the natural world. The Bill, as it currently stands, represents one of the largest dismantling of protections ever seen for the most precious wildlife habitats and species.

Part 3 of the Planning & Infrastructure Bill introduces a new system where environmental impacts of development in some locations could seek to be addressed through Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs). The peers’ proposal would mean that protected wildlife – from woodlands and sand dunes to otters and barn owls – would not be covered by EDPs and so be saved from a broadbrush approach which threatens to undermine their protection.

As the Bill nears its final debate in the House of Lords, The Wildlife Trusts are calling on peers to support Amendment 130 – tabled by Baroness Willis of Summertown and a strong coalition of other peers – which would remove sensitive natural habitats and species from the EDP process. Peers are urged to adopt this amendment to reduce the risk of damaging an already severely diminished natural world, alongside supporting efforts to further minimise the threat by adding the mitigation hierarchy to the Bill.

Thousands of rare pond mud snails have been released into wetlands around the Pentland Hills as part of a conservation project run by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS).

Alongside local MP Scott Arthur, and species steering group members from the RSPB, and the Pentland Hills Regional Park Service, the wildlife conservation charity released over 3,000 snails into ponds and marshes near the Threipmuir Reservoir and Bavelaw Marsh area.

Dr Helen Taylor, deputy head of conservation at RZSS, said: “Once widespread, this vulnerable species is now found at only a few sites in Britain. RZSS has been successfully breeding these snails since 2017 and has learned a lot about the species during that time.

Record numbers of a vulnerable seabird have been born at a beach in Norfolk, a bird charity has said.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said 455 chicks were born from 270 pairs of little terns nesting on Eccles beach.

The charity said the numbers made it the biggest tern colony in the UK this year.

Fining English water companies for spilling raw sewage will soon become quicker and easier, the government has said.

New proposals would see automatic fines of up to £20,000 issued for some minor offences and make it simpler to punish more serious ones.

In recent years data from the water industry's own monitoring equipment has shown how frequently rules are broken around sewage spills. But the regulator, the Environment Agency, has by its own admission struggled to act.

How do you solve a problem like Lough Neagh?

Blue-green algae has been detected in the lough intermittently over the past six decades.

But the past three summers have seen the biggest blooms since the 1970s.

It’s 7.30 on a Friday evening, but I’m not heading to the pub or putting on a film. Instead, I’ve caught the train to a market town in Wiltshire, where I’m meeting up with members of Warminster toad patrol. These are volunteers who – like similar groups up and down the country – give up their evenings to protect their local toad population.

For the common toad (scientific name Bufo bufo) is becoming increasingly uncommon. A recent study led by amphibian and reptile charity Froglife showed that the UK toad population has almost halved since 1985. To see a creature that has been a stalwart of the British countryside – not to mention a prominent feature of literature and folklore – in decline is “worrying”, says Dr Silviu Petrovan, senior researcher at the University of Cambridge and lead author of the study. Toads “don’t require very specific conditions” and “should be able to live quite well in most of the habitats in Britain,” he says – so if even they are not managing to survive, “it kind of suggests that things are not as they should be”.

Lancaster City Council has announced a pledge to become a Butterfly-Friendly City in partnership with Butterfly Conservation.

Councillors have made the announcement following the results of our 2025 Big Butterfly Count which showed yet more evidence that native species are in long-term decline.

Water buffalo have been introduced to an area of west Exmoor in a project which aims to restore agricultural land to its original state.

The National Trust said six female buffalo were on a 120-acre (49-hectare) site at Tattiscombe in north Devon with the intention of turning farmland back into wild wetlands.

It said the buffalo were known as "wetland architects" because they used their hooves to churn soil, create wallows and keep ponds open - slowing water flow and helping it settle naturally on the moors.

A rare and "magnificent" type of moth found on the Calf of Man has marked the first confirmed report of the species on the island, wildlife teams have confirmed.

Staff at the Calf of Man Bird Observatory found the Oleander Hawkmoth earlier this month, perched on the outside of a moth trap.

It forms part of ongoing observation work to build a greater understanding of local moth movements.

A surfer from west Wales says it was a "brilliant experience" to swim so close to an "inquisitive" young seal.

Gethin Rowlands, 28, from St Davids in Pembrokeshire, filmed the encounter while surfing at Newgale beach at about 16:00 BST on Thursday.

He said he has been around seals "all his life" through his work as a wildlife skipper - but this was the longest one has ever stayed with him, following him for around 45 minutes.

"It actually stopped me from wanting to surf - I was just content being there and didn't want to disturb it," Gethin said.

With seals now in breeding season, Gethin, who has been working with them for the past 10 years, stressed that people must avoid deliberately approaching them.

“There are the most extraordinary things we could learn from them,” says Brian Briggs, as he checks yet another of the bat boxes that he and his wife, Patty, have put up just outside Heathrow. “They’re completely fascinating, from all kinds of angles.”

It’s a damp Sunday morning at Bedfont Lakes country park, and the Nathusius’ research project team, led by Patty, is checking the artificial roosters, looking at the health and number of different bat species. This outing, however, is a little different from normal; the conversation is focused not on the bats but on the government’s planning and infrastructure bill, which the following day will be having its final reading in the House of Lords.

The group believes the bill will undo decades of progress in the conservation of protected species. “They’re going to derail all the good conservation work that this country has been notable for,” says Patty, while noting down the bats she has found in the roosting boxes. “We need to look after what’s left.”