The logo of the new campaign - Wild Again: Restoring England's Wildlife
Wild Again is the UK Government's umbrella campaign coordinating species reintroductions, conservation projects, and habitat restoration across England under one shared identity.
The campaign spans the full breadth of nature recovery: large-scale reintroductions of beavers, pine martens and golden eagles; conservation work for species like red squirrels and water voles; protection of lesser-known wildlife including wood ants, rare fungi, and native plants; and habitat restoration across wetlands, peatlands, native woodlands, and wildflower meadows.
Early signs of recovery are already visible. Red-billed choughs nested wild in Kent for the first time in over 200 years. Marsh grasshoppers returned to the Norfolk Broads after 85 years. Beavers are reestablishing in rivers they last inhabited 400 years ago.
Record investment in species recovery
Wild Again is backed by £90 million in government funding – the largest species and habitat recovery package of investment in history, more than doubling previous commitments. Of this, £60 million funds Natural England's Species Recovery Programme, supporting 130 projects protecting 364 threatened species across England's woodlands, farmland, freshwater, and coastal habitats. A further £30 million supports recovery work on the national forest estate through Forestry England.
Priority species include the swallowtail butterfly, white-clawed crayfish, northern dune tiger beetle, and the ghost orchid – one of England's rarest plants, which conservationists will now locate using detection dogs and environmental DNA technology. The programme works alongside the Government's £11.8 billion for sustainable farming and food production over this parliament, recognising that lasting recovery requires changes across the wider landscape.
Over three decades, the Species Recovery Programme has protected over 1,000 species and prevented at least 35 national extinctions.
Why habitats matter as much as species
Species cannot recover without the right habitats. Wild Again treats habitat restoration as foundational, creating and connecting wildflower meadows, wetlands, ponds, peatlands, and native woodlands across England. These restored landscapes do more than support wildlife: healthy wetlands reduce flood risk, functioning soils store carbon, and diverse plant communities support the pollinators that underpin food production.
This month, Bees' Needs Week (13–19 July) highlights the importance of pollinators as part of the wider Wild Again mission. Bees and other pollinators depend on the same wildflower-rich habitats that Wild Again is working to restore, connecting the week's message directly to the long-term goal of recovering England's wildlife.
Targets and commitments
Wild Again directly supports the Government's legally binding environmental targets: halting species decline by 2030, reversing declines by 10% by 2042, and reducing extinction risk by 2042. These targets sit alongside the international 30x30 commitment to protect 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030.
A shared mission
Wild Again connects conservation organisations, wildlife trusts, universities, farmers, land managers and local communities across England. Individual programmes retain their own identities within the campaign, reflecting the breadth and diversity of nature recovery work already underway.
Recovery is possible. The evidence is already there – in Kent's clifftops, Norfolk's wetlands, and rivers across England where wildlife absent for generations is beginning to return.
This blog will serve as our Wild Again campaign page. Please note, we will update this post to reflect updates as the campaign develops.
https://defraenvironment.blog.gov.uk/2026/07/10/wild-again-restoring-englands-wildlife/
seen at 14:31, 10 July in Environment.