£1 million grant awarded to protect curlews in Powys

Gylfinir Cymru is celebrating the news that their Curlew Connections Wales Project has received a grant to help protect the endangered curlew in partnership with Bannau Brycheiniog National park as well as a number of other parks across Wales to help protect the endangered bird.

The funding is part of the Welsh Government’s Nature Networks funding in partnership with the National Lottery Heritage Fund in partnership with Natural Resources Wales, to take action to prevent the extinction of curlews across Wales.

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Nicola Davies, Ecologist at Bannau Brycheiniog National Park said: “We are delighted to be part of this Wales-wide partnership led project focussing on curlews.

“With so few remaining in the landscape, it is our responsibility to ensure that we are doing our utmost to reverse the decline (and ultimately extinction) of curlews. This funding for the Curlew Connections project will help us to celebrate the haunting and ethereal call of the curlew across the landscape once again here in the Bannau.”

It is hoped that the funding from Welsh Government will enable partners to work within three key areas of Wales to protect the species.

Curlews are a charismatic bird that breed on farmland and moorlands across Wales during the spring and early summer months. Their distinctive call is considered by many to be the herald of spring, is evocative of wilder landscapes and loved by many, but their numbers have been declining in Wales over the last 30 years from an estimated 5,700 pairs in 1993, to as few as 400 breeding pairs across the whole of Wales today.

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Amanda Perkins, Curlew Country Lead added: “We are delighted that the Curlew Connections project is helping us to extend our pragmatic curlew recovery work across Montgomeryshire building links for a fragmented yet significant wider population. 

“This herald of Spring and symbol of wilder places and traditional farmland is disappearing fast from our landscapes.

"We look forward to working with new farming and land managing partners and their communities and welcoming all who wish to be involved in the journey to win the race against time to save our curlews from extinction.”