Heathland Connections

A new opportunity for landowners

Get involved - register your interest (https://www.surreywildlifetrust.org/heathland-connections-registration-interest)

Joined-up thinking to connect Surrey's heathland

One of twelve landscape-scale Nature Recovery Projects being delivered collaboratively across England, Heathland Connections is a Natural England funded, partnership-led initiative, which will deliver habitat restoration by supporting landowners to effectively manage adjoining areas of remnant heathland under their care.

By working with landowners to enhance, restore, and connect heathland areas, we aim to create a network of wildlife-rich sites that preserves the distinctive character and productive landscape of Surrey.

The work will make our heathlands more resilient to climate change and other pressures caused by human activity, as well as helping to reduce the financial and human costs of the climate and nature crisis. It is also an important step towards meeting the government-backed 30by30 goal, which aims to restore and protect 30 per cent of land and sea for nature in the UK and internationally by 2030.

View project map

Project partners

Work with us

We want to work with landowners of all types to assess how your principles and interests intersect with our urgent mission to restore our landscapes to good health and boost nature’s recovery.

How we can support you

The project offers private and public sector landowners and managers of all sizes - from large to small scale farmers, woodland and forestry managers, and businesses such as golf clubs - a range of support to help them work together for nature.

OFFERING
✓ Access to the LandApp - leading mapping software for assessing the ecological condition of land, its value as natural capital and its suitability for funding support.
✓ In-person advice on land management and best practice in conservation and nature restoration from SWT staff.
✓ Signposting and consultancy on how to access relevant financial support, including via Biodiversity Net Gain and Carbon Credit payments and Environmental Stewardship Grants.
✓ Species-specific surveys to help them understand what lives on their land and what steps and support can be invoked to protect it.
✓ Being part of a landscape scale movement for people and wildlife in Surrey

Get in touch

If you are a landowner and or land manager and would like to find out more, please register your interest or contact our Nature-based Solutions team at nbs@surreywt.org.uk.

Take a look at the species we aim to support

In Surrey, we have some of the finest examples of lowland heathland in the UK which support a large range of species. These include the melodic Nightingale Luscinia megarhynchos, the elusive Adder Vipera berus and the cryptically camouflaged Grayling butterfly Hipparchia semele. However, these heathland reserves are fragmented and at risk, resulting in declining populations of these distinctive species.

Take a look at these maps which demonstrate just how important it is that we preserve and connect up these fragments of habitat. Species records shown within the maps were obtained from the Surrey Biodiversity Information Centre and from recent citizen science surveys.