The Fen Futures project will restore and reconnect Oxfordshire’s internationally important fens while pioneering new DNA techniques to understand and protect threatened species.

Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) and Freshwater Habitats Trust have announced a partnership project that aims to safeguard some of England’s rarest wetland insects and restore precious alkaline fen habitats across Oxfordshire.

The Fen Futures: Recovering Rare Fen Insects project will focus on eleven fen sites centred on the internationally important Cothill Fen Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and surrounding wetlands in west Oxfordshire. Together, these sites support nationally significant populations of four threatened species: the southern damselfly, orange-horned green colonel, clubbed general, and dark-winged soldier.