Crowdfunder launched for Great Fen expansion

The Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire has launched its biggest-ever fundraising appeal as it looks to take the "next step" in its vision for the Great Fen.

The Trust wants to buy Speechly's Farm, which will help it to connect Woodwalton Fen and Holme Fen National Nature Reserves and expand its fenland restoration project, making a large corridor of prime habitat for rare and localised wildlife, while also locking carbon into the ground.

To do this, it needs to raise £400,000 and has launched an online crowdfunder where the the public can donate. Reaching this target will unlock a further £4m from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to secure Speechly's Farm as part of a wider £8m project. In effect, this means that any donation will be worth at least 10 times that amount.

The Trust said: "The wet peatlands we'll create at Speechly's Farm will be a fantastic carbon sink, helping to keep around twice as much carbon in the ground as local woodlands. But right now, Cranfield University estimates that the drained farmland of the Great Fen is actually releasing tens of thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the air each year. To turn the greenhouse gases off, we need your help to turn the water back on and trap the carbon in wet peat soils below."

Find out more at www.wildlifebcn.org/landmarkappeal.