Wildlife-rich habitat fund

The new Wildlife-Rich Habitat Fund is designed to deliver thousands of hectares of new habitat across England's National Parks, National Landscapes, and the Broads over three years (April 2026 - March 2029), helping to bring nature back to the places people love most.

Nationally the government is investing £30 million over 3 years to restore and create wildlife-rich habitats.

Here in the Peak District, we are supporting ambitious projects to restore and create hay meadows, dewponds, wetlands, wood-pasture, woodland and moorland. These projects will have benefits for threatened species including curlew, woodland birds, great crested newts and common toads, in addition to extending and linking existing protected sites.

We are working with partners including the Wildlife Trusts, local farmers, contractors and the National Trust, to help us deliver the works, which will be delivered through the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme.

These projects will help meet the UK’s international commitment to protect 30% land for nature and our legal Environment Act target to restore over 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat by 2042.

Wildlife Rich Habitat Funded projects in the Peak District in 2026-27

Restoration of Gun Moor

Through WHRF, we are working with Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, volunteers and contractors to start the restoration of Gun Moor, an 81-hectare upland mix of habitats on the western edge of the Peak District. The project will include establishing a new area of just under 2 hectares of native woodland. On areas of deep peat, the works focus on a series of grip and drainage blocking, along with sphagnum planting, restoring 24 hectares of wet heath and kick-starting the re-wetting of the peatland.

It is hoped that this initial series of works will allow further species to be introduced in future years as the conditions get wetter.

Restoring Dewponds in the White Peak

An exciting project is underway with the ambitious aim of restoring up to 20 dewponds across the White Peak. Originally made to provide water for livestock in areas where natural water sources are scarce, dewponds provide important aquatic habitat for wildlife. Many of these have fallen into disrepair, but restored can once again benefit amphibians including great crested newts and common toads, and aquatic invertebrates such as dragonflies.

We will work with farmers and land managers to provide guidance and support throughout the restoration process and beyond. Up to 100% funding is available for restoring dewponds for nature.

Do you have a dewpond on your farmland that you’d love to see come alive with newts and toads again? Get in touch with the FiPL team below.

Peak District Hay Meadows

Through previous rounds of FiPL funding, we have now restored over 145 hectares of species rich grasslands. This project aims to build on that success, working with farmers and landowners with the ambitious target of restoring a further 75 hectares towards species rich grasslands. The project as a whole is contributing to landscape conservation and nature recovery and works include ecological surveys to inform habitat restoration plans and act as a baseline against which to monitor change, soil analyses to inform the restoration plans, site delivery, using green hay or locally harvested seed and fungi surveys to inform future management.

Green hay, rich in wildflower seeds, is harvested from nearby flower-rich meadows, spread and rolled into prepared ground to encourage the seed to germinate. Additional seed or plug plants are sometimes added for target species native to the particular area.

Habitat restoration at Ughill and Cowell Flat

Two areas on the edge of the Dark Peak SSSI, close to Sheffield, have received funding through Wildlife Rich Habitat Fund to restore and manage moorland and hay meadows. Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust, farmers, volunteers and ecological consultants are working together to deliver a series of interventions, all of which contribute to the enhancement, restoration and creation of heathland and deep peat typical of moorland edge farms, which provide essential breeding habitat for curlew, lapwing and snipe.
The project includes surveying and monitoring by volunteers, infrastructure to manage focussed grazing, hay meadow, acid grassland and peatland restoration.

Hedgerows

WRHF is supporting several hedgerow creation and restoration projects on individual farms, including a collaboration with Hope Valley Farmers, as an extension of their ‘Every Fence a Hedge’ projects, previously supported by FiPL.

Hedgerows provide connections for wildlife to move between woodland and other areas, shelter for livestock and protection of the ground from extreme weather. They supply a source of food, nesting and breeding habitats for birds, butterflies, bees and other pollinators, and they offer wider environmental benefits, reducing water run-off and storing carbon – increasing resilience to climate change.

Get in touch with the Farming in Protected Landscapes team at farming@peakdistrict.gov.uk or call 01629 816270.