Climate Positive News - March 2026

This month's collection of positive climate news stories highlight how a trawling ban has caused a resurgence in marine life in Sussex, the revival of the elusive nightjar bird with the South Downs National Park, and the upcoming makeover for British banknotes.

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1. Rewilding linked to dramatic increases in birds across Scotland

Rewilding projects across Scotland are delivering dramatic gains for wildlife, especially birds and pollinators, according to new research. Sites within the Northwoods Rewilding Network were surveyed by the charity SCOTLAND: The Big Picture and they found that areas undergoing rewilding supported far greater biodiversity than neighbouring land managed conventionally.

Across surveyed sites, suitable habitat for birds increased more than fivefold, while numbers of bumblebees and butterflies rose by more than tenfold. Separate analysis suggested the network’s landscapes now support an estimated 2.5 million pollinating insects.

Find out more on the Bird Guides website.

2. Young trees planted to expand temperate rainforest

Volunteers have planted 800 young trees in a bid to expand one of the South West's last remaining temperate rainforests. The saplings have been planted at Dartmoor's Wistman's Wood National Nature Reserve.

The project was led by volunteers from Natural England, in partnership with the Duchy of Cornwall, Moor Trees and the Woodland Trust. The work follows the planting of 450 saplings at the site in March 2025.

Find out more on the BBC website.

3. White stork comeback hope for new project

A new project to reintroduce white storks to Derbyshire has been announced. Derbyshire Wildlife Trust said the species vanished from the region about 600 years ago, but it was using £300,000 in funding to create a purpose-built white stork enclosure at the Willington Wetlands nature reserve.

The predator-proof enclosure is designed to support breeding, chick development and carefully-managed soft releases into the wider landscape. It has been developed with Celtic Rewilding, specialists running a captive breeding facility just over the border in Staffordshire, the trust said.

Find out more on the BBC website.

4. Pioneering tree planting project celebrates five-year milestone

The first tree plant on common land in Wales is celebrating five years of success. The Bryn Arw woodland, a low hill on the eastern edge of the Black Mountains, is a primary site for Stump Up for Trees’ mission to plant one million native trees in south east Wales.

Over the last five years, the site has seen over 100 hours of volunteer work, set up annual bird and plant surveys, and proven a working farmed hill can incorporate woodland.

Find out more on the Nation Cymru website.

5. Trawling ban sparks marine recovery

A conservation project is reporting increased black sea bream and "mussel beds stretching more than a kilometre", five years since a ban on bottom trawling. Sussex Kelp Recovery Project (SKRP) said a "quiet but powerful transformation is unfolding beneath the waves" since its launch half a decade ago.

The project followed the introduction of a byelaw in 2021 protecting a 117 sq mile (302 sq km) area between Shoreham and Selsey in West Sussex. SKRP kelp recovery coordinator George Short said: "It's given me enormous joy to see this sign of hope in what is a time of really difficult environmental change”.

Find out more on the BBC website.

6. Elusive nightjar birds making remarkable comeback

Following conservation efforts, the number of nightjars recorded is thought to have doubled in the past five years within the South Downs National Park which stretches across Hampshire, West Sussex and East Sussex. 

Seventy eight of the elusive birds, which are known for their "churring" song at sunset, were recorded last year in an ecological survey. The current rise in numbers followed work focused on protecting and increasing lowland heath which provides the habitat for the nightjar ground-nesting sites.

Find out more on the BBC website.

7. Villagers planting thousands of trees to protect from flooding

After a devastating flood in June 2012 where 27 homes were flooded in Tal-y-bont, Ceredigion, a group of villagers came together with an idea - they would plant trees, thousands of them, to try to reduce the risk of flooding in the future.

"We started off with the aim to plant 2,000 trees in the first winter," said Linda Denton, who coordinates the group of volunteers who call themselves the Tal-y-bont Treeplanters. "And we actually managed about eight [thousand]. We've gradually increased it from there. So we've now done five winters and 50,000 trees”. The group meets every week, in all weathers, planting on land 1,000ft above sea level.

Find out more on the BBC website.

8. British wildlife to be celebrated on banknotes

Images of the UK's wildlife are to feature on the next series of banknotes following a public consultation run by the Bank of England. The exact plants and animals that will be on the notes will be chosen later this year. 

In the summer, the public will be invited to say which specific wildlife, native to the UK, from the shortlist they would like to feature on the next series of banknotes. The new notes may also incorporate other elements from nature, such as plants and landscapes, to complete the design.

Find out more on the Bank of England website.

By Eveline Vouillemin ©