Nature in the North Pennines

Nature is in trouble and needs our help. Our goal here in the North Pennines National Landscape and UNESCO Global Geopark is a nature-rich landscape cared for by more people and providing benefits they increasingly value. In the light of the climate and biodiversity crises, National Landscapes (formerly AONBs) made a collective statement on nature in 2019 known as the Colchester Declaration. It states that National Landscapes should be places of rich, diverse and abundant wildlife. It also reaffirms the importance of natural beauty and its intrinsic value which means so much to people. Our plan for nature has genuine ambition for wildlife and nature recovery. We must look beyond just what has been lost in the last 50 years and towards the future potential for nature in our landscape.

Projects

Adders Up is a three-year project, funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Northumbrian Water Branch Out Fund, to develop new insights into adder populations across the North Pennines National Landscape and beyond. The European adder, Vipera berus, is one of Britain’s most iconic animals, important to both natural and cultural heritage. However, recent studies show that adder populations are in widespread decline. Despite their importance and their vulnerable status, little is known about adder populations in the North Pennines.

The WildWatch North Pennines and Cold-blooded and Spineless projects demonstrated to us the importance people attach to their connection with wildlife and the reward that they get from learning new skills. WildWatch North Pennines generated over 20,000 records, inspired by 130 training events, and Cold-blooded and Spineless enabled naturalists to specialise in invertebrate identification. The project added at least 9,000 new records to databases where little data previously existed. Providing identification training and field practice opportunities are key to fuelling volunteer motivation and promoting data quality. Three new wildlife groups and an invertebrate champions network support ongoing interest in wildlife recording in the North Pennines as part of these projects’ legacy.