Defra Capital Funding
Extension to Wrabness Nature Reserve
The Suffolk & Essex Coast & Heaths National Landscape facilitated a major grant to support the expansion of Essex Wildlife Trust’s nature reserve in Wrabness.
£100,000 was awarded to Essex Wildlife Trust through the Department of Food, Environment & Rural Affairs (Defra) capital investment fund. This funding enables National Landscapes and National Parks to invest in projects which bring more areas within Protected Landscapes into positive conservation management.
The grant was supplemented by £56,346 raised by Essex Wildlife Trust following a fundraising appeal that hit its original target of £30,000 just five hours after launching.
Together, the funds will allow the Trust to proceed with the purchase of 6 acres of land adjacent to the existing reserve on the banks of the river Stour, in the southern part of the National Landscape in North Essex. The acquisition will enable the Trust to bring the land under long-term conservation management.
The expansion will support the restoration and protection of key habitats, including grazing marsh, ponds and hedgerows, and will support some of the UK’s most endangered species, such as nightingale and turtle dove.
The additional land will also strengthen the wider ecological network, creating a more resilient and connected nature reserve.Wrabness is a wonderful village on the banks of the Stour, popular with wildlife lovers and walkers thanks to its riverside location, links to the artist Sir Grayson Perry, and accessible links by train from Manningtree and Harwich.