Great Crested Newt Project: Species Action Plan

THE GREAT CRESTED NEWT PROJECT

Great Crested Newt Species Action Plan

The aim of the Great Crested Newt SAP is to:

Maintain or improve existing populations by managing habitat, notably through encouraging actions at a local level.
Promote conservation policies and practices nationally and locally, especially in relation to agriculture and development planning.
Undertake and initiate further surveys and improve recording and use of data.
Restore great crested newts to sites within their historic range.
Increase our understanding of and gain support for the conservation of great crested newts.

The targets for all Biodiversity Action Plans have been revised so effort is now underway to publicise these changes and to produce the Great Crested Newt SAP Implementation Guide.

The targets until 2010 were to achieve an increase in:

the range of occupied 10km squares from 904 to 926.
the range of occupied vice-counties from 88 to 89.
the number of occupied ponds from 100,000 to 120,000.
the number of ponds with a Habitat Suitability Index of >0.7 from 60,000 to 72,000.

As of June 2009 a new SAP has been published which sets out objectives and targets up to 2030. These will be reviewed again in March 2010 to see if the targets have been achieved.

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