Scottish Ministers have today announced that they will save the internationally important wildlife site at Coul Links from a golf development that would have caused permanent and irreversible damage.

This echoes a previous decision made in 2020, when similar plans for an 18-hole golf course at the site near Embo, East Sutherland, were refused.

Those welcoming today’s decision hope it will be the last time the area needs to be defended against similar threats and that this outcome will send a clear signal that developments that damage our most important places for nature in Scotland will not be supported.

Communities across the UK will be better protected against the growing threats of climate change, as the world’s first Climate and Nature Security Taskforce met for the first time this week.

The taskforce will make independent recommendations to help shape government’s approach to tackling national and international climate security challenges, and to help ensure Britain can best prepare itself for the climate crisis.

The Minister for Climate Transition, Katie White, will chair the inaugural meeting, alongside Baroness Fiona Twycross. The taskforce brings together experts from across the fields of climate, nature and security to assess the UK’s readiness for security challenges created by climate change and nature loss – including General Richard Nugee, Comfort Ero, President of the International Crisis Group and Rosie Hails, Director of Science for the National Trust.

Teesdale Special Flora Research and Conservation Trust has been awarded funding from the North Pennines National Landscape through Defra’s Farming in Protected Landscapes programme for a three-year rare arctic-alpine species recovery project.

The project has been awarded £64,739 and will be delivered in partnership by the Teesdale Special Flora Trust and the North Pennines National Landscape team.

Upper Teesdale is considered one of the top 5 ‘botanical hotspots’ in Britain and Ireland due to its unusually large number of rare plant species, and the fact that plants with very different geographical distributions grow here together.

A second stoat has been discovered in Rousay, just a fortnight after the capture of what was believed to be the island’s only specimen.

Orkney Native Wildlife Project (ONWP) has called the sighting of the invasive predator a “deeply concerning development”.

The non-native mustelid was spotted on a trail camera, this week, re-launching the eradication effort in the island.

An “amazing” abundance of 5,290 butterflies, including rare small blues and dingy skippers, has appeared on land that was barren wheatfields just two years ago.

The speed with which nature has bounced back at Halnaker Hill farm in West Sussex has surprised experts after 133 hectares (330 acres) of intensively farmed land were turned into a commercial nature restoration project.

The farm’s relatively unproductive soils on the South Downs were cropped for wheat for 40 years, but after a final harvest in 2024 the arable land was sown with a special wildflower mix. Seven kilometres of hedgerows have been planted, seven hectares (17 acres) of new woodland created, three ponds dug and 54 hectares (133 acres) of herbal leys seeded, with carefully controlled mob-grazing on existing chalk grassland to improve its wildlife and biodiversity.

A £3.6bn proposal to stop sewage being discharged into Windermere, England's largest lake, has been unveiled.

The plans, which are backed by the local water company United Utilities and clean water campaigners, would see a tunnel up to 12 miles (19km) long built to transport sewage away from the lake.

At the moment both raw sewage and treated effluent are discharged into Windermere and campaigners say that is why parts of the lake have been turning green each summer, so-called algal blooming.

A new, purpose-built laboratory will serve as a base for scientists, universities and students to investigate Cumbria's upland landscapes, and how they respond to nature recovery.

It is hoped the research facility at RSPB Wild Haweswater, in Penrith, will become a hub for upland science, bringing researchers and conservationists together to carry out fieldwork, share expertise, and develop new collaborations.

The lab was funded by the estate of the late ornithologist Denis Summers-Smith.

Pembrokeshire's coastline is renowned for its wildlife, but the past year has delivered an especially impressive collection of marine encounters.

Here's a round-up of five of the most incredible sea creatures that have been spotted around Pembrokeshire's coast.

The UK government has approved the controversial Jackdaw gasfield in the North Sea, a widely expected move that will nonetheless dismay environmental campaigners and a number of Labour MPs.

While Labour’s 2024 election manifesto committed to a ban on new drilling licences in the North Sea, the companies behind Jackdaw and the Rosebank oilfield project, which is being decided on separately, have sought environmental approval for existing licences.

The companies resubmitted their applications for environmental approval earlier this year. The decision on Jackdaw had been expected last month but was delayed, seemingly to take it beyond the Holborn and St Pancras byelection on 8 October, where Labour was defending a seat against a Green challenge and ultimately won.

mphibian and Reptile Conservation (ARC) has been awarded £1,208,457 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to help more children and young people discover and protect the UK’s native amphibians and reptiles.

Thanks to National Lottery players, Hop Spots will enter its four-year Delivery Phase in early 2027, bringing education, engagement and practical conservation opportunities to communities across Dorset, East Anglia and Merseyside. The project aims to raise awareness of these often-overlooked species, connecting young people with local wildlife and helping them understand how they can contribute to its conservation.

In Merseyside, ARC will work with lead partner Green Sefton, part of Sefton Council, with Ainsdale Discovery Centre providing a base for learning, events and conservation activities.

A project to improve a section of the River Brent by restoring habitats and boosting biodiversity is set to give endangered water voles a better chance of returning to the river in Ealing.

Thames Water has awarded £146,700 through its ‘Enhance the River Grant’ in a bid to create the conditions needed for water voles to return.

The project, called ‘People, River, Voles: A Shared Restoration Journey on the River Brent’, is supported by the Mayor of London.

A country house and farming estate in one of England's driest and most nature-depleted areas has an "abundance" of wildlife with more than 5,000 species recorded, the National Trust has said.

Rare species, including barbastelle bats, great crested newts and corn buntings, have been spotted at the Wimpole Estate in Cambridgeshire in the last six years.

General manager David Hassall said the number was "remarkable in any landscape, but particularly here in Cambridgeshire, where wildlife is facing the combined pressures of habitat loss and increasingly hot, dry conditions".

With growing concerns that red squirrels could soon become extinct in England, one Channel Island is a corner of the British Isles where they maintain a stronghold.

Jersey is home to a thriving red squirrel population, thanks to the complete absence of grey squirrels, which carry a virus deadly to their red cousins.

Red squirrels are endangered in the UK, with about 120,000 to 160,000 left in the wild and various projects are aiming to boost those numbers.

Amateur wildlife photographer Rhys Morgan has caught extraordinary footage of one of the largest whale species on Earth.

While sailing off the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales, Morgan and his friends spotted the blowholes of a fin whale in the distance, recognisable by the hooked fin near its tail, a dark grey upper body, white belly, and an asymmetrical jaw that is dark on the left and white on the right.

People who have enjoyed the video online are trying to raise awareness of fin whales being hunted in Iceland and calling on government ministers to take action

More than 1,000 tower mustard plants have been successfully grown and planted out by volunteers in London.

It marks a successful first year for a major community-led effort to restore one of the capital's rarest native wildflowers, vital for bees, butterflies and rare moths.

Led by Citizen Zoo and Habitats & Heritage, the tower mustard project brings together a network of land managers, community groups, conservation partners and volunteers.

"Courage and leadership" are needed to ensure Northern Ireland catches up on tackling climate change.

The new chair of the Climate Change Committee, Nigel Topping, is spending two days on a fact-finding mission to hear the thoughts of people across different sectors.

He said Northern Ireland was a small nation that could be "agile and innovative" in tackling challenges like increasing renewable energy, improving waste management and reducing emissions.

With six heatwaves from May to August, and temperatures as high as 38.2C in parts of Britain, the summer of 2026 was the UK’s hottest on record. The impact on British wildlife is not yet understood, but with such seasonal extremes likely to become more common it is more important than ever that we build a clear picture of the impact of such extended periods of hot weather on species and ecosystems.

There are concerns especially for small mammals, such as the UK’s smallest rodent, the harvest mouse, which can grow up to 7cm and weighs about the same as a single sheet of A4 paper. While most of our small mammals (voles, mice and shrews) seek refuge from extreme heat (and predators) in underground burrows, the harvest mouse stays above ground and weaves spherical nests from living grass steps in which to sleep and breed.

Small mammals are often especially affected by drought and extended hot spells, and a much larger-than-average number of dead shrews and moles were found by Mammal Society volunteers in the summer months of this year, having expired from heat exhaustion and/or dehydration. Harvest mice could be especially vulnerable to heat since they sleep and breed above ground. The heat over summer has caused grasses and vegetation to dry and die back early, which could greatly impact the nesting behaviour and reproduction of harvest mice.

The environment watchdog is being urged to intervene in “cash to trash” planning rules that will allow almost 16,000 new homes in the Norfolk Broads despite the damage to one of the UK’s most environmentally protected areas.

Labour’s flagship planning reforms allow damage to protected habitats and species to be overlooked if developers pay into a central nature restoration fund, which is used for conservation actions at a later date. These environmental delivery plans (EDPs) have been called “cash to trash” by critics, who say they roll back decades of environmental law and are a “licence to kill nature”.

The Norfolk Broads, a heavily protected biodiversity hotspot that is home to more than a quarter of the UK’s rarest plants and animals, is the guinea pig for the first EDP. Developers will pay £2,675 per house – £42m in total – and in return get permission to build 15,780 new homes in the Broads.

The government must hold an inquiry into the unequal impacts of air pollution, 150 scientists, MPs and activists have urged.

Research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows that across England, lower-income areas have persistently higher levels of air pollution than wealthier areas.

The same research found that minority-ethnic populations were exposed to air pollution levels that were about 6% higher than those experienced by white populations.

New woodlands have been created by volunteers planting more than 109,000 trees across Lancashire in the last year.

More than 1,200 volunteers from communities, landowners and environmental organisations have created woodland over an equivalent area of 154 football pitches, 61 new orchards and 17 new micro-forests.

In the last two tree-planting seasons, the Lancashire Woodland Partnership has planted almost 500,000 trees and more than 27,233 metres of new hedges.

A rewilding project at a South Downs National Park beauty spot has helped create a boom in butterfly numbers including two nationally important species spotted at the site for the first time.

A total of 5,290 individual butterflies from 28 species including the dingy skipper and the UK’s smallest species the small blue have been counted during surveys following the renaturing work at Halnaker Hill Farm near Chichester, West Sussex.

Two fell ponies have joined a herd to trample dominant vegetation to try and help delicate flowers thrive.

Annabel Rushton, site manager of RSPB Wild Haweswater, said the native Cumbrian fell breed were "ideally suited" to the rugged terrain and weather in Swindale Valley, where they would graze and crush rushes and coarse grasses.

Wild Haweswater said the grazing project would aid delicate wildflowers like Devil's Bit Scabious and the ponies were good at spreading wildflower seed in their dung.

Seal pups have been recorded at a nature reserve for the 12th year running.

Cumbria Wildlife Trust confirmed two pups had been spotted at South Walney Nature Reserve near Barrow, Cumbria.

The reserve is home to the county's only breeding grey seal colony and major haul-out site, a spot where seals come to shore for rest.

For centuries human beings have exploited puffins, harvesting them by the thousand on their breeding grounds for their food and feathers. Over time, though, this relationship has changed, so that today we have come to love them, celebrating their quirky character and comical appearance and giving them a central place in our affections – a journey described by the environmental historian Dr Rob Lambert as the shift “from use to delight”.

How ironic, then, that just as we have come to truly appreciate them, our own existence now threatens theirs. The climate crisis threatens almost all the world’s roughly 11,000 species of birds, but its consequences have particularly dire significance for seabirds, whose life cycle is so intimately connected to the timing and abundance of their food supplies.

Warming oceans result in fish such as sand eels shifting their range into cooler waters, and thus either declining or disappearing from the seas around seabird breeding colonies. If puffins need to travel further to their feeding areas, or take longer to find and catch food once they get there, then their chicks have a lower chance of fledging.

Two species of damselfly have been recorded for the first time in a woodland after the completion of a three-year project to restore habitat across seven nature reserves, a wildlife trust has revealed.

Work on the Ancient Astonbury and Wilder Woodlands project, in Hertfordshire, was made possible with a £162,698 grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

An increase in flowers attracted more butterflies, with Silver-washed Fritillaries also recorded in much higher numbers during summer 2026 than in previous years, the Herts & Middlesex Wildlife Trust said.