To preserve natural habitats the Government is taking action to protect our best wildlife sites, expand habitat for insects in the wider countryside and support partnerships working on targeted habitat restoration and species recovery.

Over one million hectares of our best habitats for wildlife on land and in our freshwater and coastal areas are conserved through our protected sites designations.

Outside the protected sites series we are managing land to create new wildlife-rich habitat. Since 2011, over 130,000 ha in England have been set aside for this purpose. In 2015, we introduced new and simple agri-environment ‘packages’ to make it easier for farmers to provide flower rich margins or pollen and nectar plots on fields to support wild pollinators.

Natural England, our statutory nature conservation adviser, continues to work with a range of landowning and NGO partners to support the recovery of threatened insect species by managing and creating habitats for threatened species such as the barberry carpet moth, the short-haired bumblebee and chequered skipper butterfly.

In addition to preserving habitats, the Government is taking action to reduce threats to pollinators. We are supporting science-led restrictions on neonicotinoids so we can protect bees and other pollinators. We also continue to tackle threats from invasive species, such as the Asian hornet, and protect honey bees from pests and diseases through a nationwide team of bee inspectors.