Latest Species Champions News

25 July 2017

Caroline Nokes, MP for Romsey and Southampton North, joined Butterfly Conservation staff on a visit to a Duke of Burgundy site near Stockbridge which is being looked after by woodland management company Tilhill Forestry.

24 July 2017

The Redcar MP has visited a conservation project in Teesside dedicated to reversing the fortunes of the little tern, one of the UK’s most threatened seabirds. Read more here

07 July 2017

New edition of the species champion newsletter is published.

03 July 2017

MPs attended an award ceremony in Westminster, hosted by Richard Benyon MP, to mark the first anniversary of the Species Champions project and celebrate the recruitment of 39 MPs from across the political spectrum. To find out who were the winners of the three awards, click here

12 June 2017

Neil Carmichael – skylark champion, Charlotte Leslie – shrill carder bee champion, and Oliver Colvile – hedgehog champion all lost their seats in last week’s General Election. The Species Champion project partners would like to thank all three MPs for their work on behalf of their species, and hope that they will continue to speak up about species conservation in whatever role they take on in the future.

02 May 2017

The Species Champions partnership would like to thank all the MPs who have joined the Species Champions project and have been active learning about their species, taking part in site visits and speaking up for the species in their Parliamentary work. While Parliament is dissolved the project is in abeyance as the MPs who had signed up have become Prospective Parliamentary Candidates and their Species Champion role is similarly suspended. We will continue this successful project in the new Parliament and very much hope that new and returning MPs will again sign up to help us save species.

The news pages of the website will not be updated until after the General Election on Thursday 8 June.

30 April 2017

John Pugh, species champion for the natterjack toad, has confirmed that he will be standing down as MP for Southport ahead of the forthcoming general election, and will therefore also be stepping down from his role as MP species champion. We thank John for his support and wish him all the best!

22 April 2017

The last week of March was Invasive Species Week, an annual event bringing together organisations across Britain to raise awareness of the problems caused by non-native species, and inspire people to take action. Several of our MP Species Champions took to social media to spread the word – click here to find out more.

21 April 2017

Barry Sheerman, MP for Huddersfield, is standing up for the Noctule – one of Europe’s largest bats. Noctules have declined in several parts of the UK as a result of changes in agricultural practices, and we’re pleased to welcome Barry to his role as species champion.

11 April 2017

Nick Herbert, MP for Arundel and South Downs, has agreed to champion one of our most popular farmland birds, the lapwing. This species has suffered significant declines in recent years as a result of agricultural intensification and changes in land use reducing nest site availability and abundance of insect prey. As a result the lapwing is now a species on the red list of UK Birds of Conservation Concern.