Curlew recovery in Wales wins £1m funding boost

Curlew recovery in Wales has secured almost £1m of Welsh Government funding, Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority announced on 28 July. The investment from the Nature Networks Fund will continue curlew recovery Wales work at landscape scale, in partnership with the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley National Landscape.

The park authority called it a critical moment for the species, which is now the bird of highest conservation concern in Wales.

What will the curlew recovery funding pay for?

The new phase secures three more years of recovery work across the park, taking a landscape-scale approach and applying the lessons of the earlier project. Specialist advisors will deepen understanding of curlew ecology, while volunteers and the public will continue to contribute through community engagement, survey work and data collection.

A key focus will be continued collaboration with the farming community, and the project will support farmers in shaping sustainable recovery frameworks for the bird.

Why are curlews Wales’ most threatened breeding bird?

Curlews are long-lived, ground-nesting birds that breed on farmland and moorland across Wales in spring and early summer. Very few eggs and chicks make it through to adulthood each year, too few for the population to sustain itself, and the species is in long-term decline.

How are farmers and the GWCT involved?

The funding builds directly on Curlew Connections Wales, a three-year partnership led jointly with the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley National Landscape and the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, which ended on 31 March 2026.

That project worked with farmers, volunteers, ecologists and researchers to understand and protect breeding curlews, with farming families monitoring nests and predators, improving habitat conditions and enabling conservation measures on the ground, work whose importance to wader recovery this readership knows well.

Brad Welch, land use and nature recovery manager at Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority, said: “We are thrilled to receive this support from the Nature Networks Programme, securing three more years of vital curlew recovery work throughout the Park.”

“Working alongside our partners, the farming and local communities we can build directly on the strong foundations laid by the Curlew Connections Wales project. Protecting this species is a conservation priority for Bannau Brycheiniog and this next phase gives us real confidence for the future of this iconic bird.”

What happens next

The Nature Networks Fund is delivered by the Heritage Fund on behalf of the Welsh Government, and the new phase begins with three more years of work secured. Details of the project and how to get involved will come from the park authority, linked below.