The Water Friendly Farming Report 2014, by the Freshwater Habitats Trust and the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, highlights the results of the four-year Water Friendly Farming Project, which for the first time identifies the specific habitat creation needed to prevent the loss of freshwater biodiversity at the landscape scale.

Results of the research show that the creation of new wildlife ponds is vital in helping to reverse a decline of aquatic plants. The researchers identified that 80% of all freshwater plants are found in ponds and therefore make a very large contribution to protecting freshwater biodiversity. However, there has been a marked decline in both the number of ponds and their quality across England and Wales between 1998 and 2007. But despite being established for under a year, the newly created ponds in the project played a crucial role in offsetting the apparent decline of aquatic plants in the wider landscape within a very short time-scale.

To read more on this visit the Freshwater Habitats website