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Unlocking the environmental and income-generation potential of hedgerows in the British countryside is a step closer as the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust begins piloting the new Hedgerow Carbon Code.

The GWCT welcomes the publication of the Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) in time for discussion at the Royal Welsh Show.

A new habitat measure developed by scientists from the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) to boost the fortunes of the beloved, red-listed grey partridge, is proving a big hit with insects too.

The results are in for the 2022 GWCT Big Farmland Bird Count. More than 1,900 farmers and land managers overcame challenging conditions to provide a vital snapshot of the health of our cherished farmland birds by taking part in the count, between 4-20 February.

Nature will be protected and enhanced on an unprecedented scale, with the formation of a pioneering new landscape-scale partnership of farmers in the Hampshire Avon Valley.

A new wildlife cover crop seed mix, which promises to be one of the best yet for biodiversity, has been developed by scientists at the GWCT. The ‘Wildlife Plot’ mix is available through the government-funded Sustainable Farming Incentive Test and Trial pilot scheme and is expected to be incorporated into the future Environmental Land Management Schemes (ELMS), enabling farmers to make space for nature alongside modern farming.

While unseasonal weather has played havoc with this year’s harvest, we should also stop to think of its impact on wildlife, according to experts at the GWCT. The grey partridge, known by conservationists as the ‘barometer of the countryside’, is one species likely to be affected by a dry spring and a dull, wet July and August.

The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) has published the 2020 annual report for the Game & Wildlife Scottish Demonstration Farm at Auchnerran on Deeside and, despite the pandemic impacting on research and demonstration activity, the farming operation performed well over the year.

Leading UK conservation science charity the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust recently invited BBC Countryfile to visit three farms on the Hampshire/Dorset border to see farmer-led conservation in action. The Countryfile episode will be broadcast at 6pm on Sunday 9 May.

Participation in an annual nationwide survey of farmland birds has more than doubled. Britain’s farmers and gamekeepers have shown their long-term commitment to conservation alongside productive land-use by completing this year’s GWCT Big Farmland Bird Count in record numbers.