SPECIES RECOVERY CENTRE

The Species Recovery Centre is an ambitious project to build a national centre for the captive breeding and release of endangered UK animal species. We aim to breed nationally endangered animals and release them into suitable wild projects around the UK. The project builds on the successful work of breeding and releasing watervoles, and encompass an additional ten species.

Background

After making it clear that Britain is now one of the most nature diminished nations on earth the State of Nature Report 2023 makes it clear that “despite progress in ecosystem restoration, conserving species, and moving toward nature-friendly land and sea use, the UK’s nature and wider environment continues, overall, to decline and degrade”

The Species Restoration Centre

It very obvious that we are ill prepared to restore many of our lost, dwindling or otherwise threatened wildlife species at scale. While many conservation organisations are without doubt committed to doing so both the expertise required to achieve this end together with the creatures, we wish to return are generally unavailable. Many exciting projects in the UK are achieving landscape recovery, but will be inhibited without the rare and lost species required to bring those projects to their full potential. The Species Restoration Centre will collate these species into a central location, then build the captive breeding knowledge required to produce these creatures in quantity. This will allow us to deliver lost and rare species in volume to landscapes across the UK. This model has already been proven with water voles, 3000 of which are now produced annually for successful release in nature recovery projects across the UK.

To build on this success we are looking to establish around the infrastructure that already exists at the Derek Gow Consultancy at Upcott Grange Farm in Devon, a central hub for species restoration.

The staff at the hub will build an expertise in breeding, caring for and releasing lost and endangered UK species. We will work with other major landowners collaboratively to create satellite breeding and release facilities operated under guidance of the Species Recovery Centre team. These satellite centres can then breed animals local to their potential release sites.

The Species Restoration Centre will focus on the development of the following:

The establishment of a pool of knowledge pertinent to the techniques required to keep, breed and propagate the broadest possible range of threatened native wildlife.

To identify a priority species list for captive breeding and from this secure the seed stock required to begin breeding projects.

To identify any collaboration as may be required with specialist breeders of threatened British wildlife species and to support their credible efforts to do so.

To provide where habitats remain or can be created, seed populations of the above to enable their restoration in a free-living state.

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