Welcome to our Projects page, where we showcase our current, past, and ongoing science and research initiatives. Focused on evidence-based conservation, our projects explore sustainable land management and the protection of native species, helping to preserve Wales’ biodiversity for future generations.
Current Projects & Work
Curlew Connections Wales Project
Curlew Connections Wales is a wader conservation project supported by Welsh Government’s Nature Networks Fund, delivered by the Heritage Lottery Fund. One million pounds has been allocated to support breeding curlew in Wales, focusing on three ‘Important Curlew Areas’.
Curlew Connections Wales aims to tackle the key issues driving the low breeding success of curlew in Wales, monitoring and understanding curlew populations within these three Important Curlew Areas, implementing nest protection, predator management and habitat works. With breeding curlew predicted to be extinct in Wales by 2033.
Anglesey Farmland Biodiversity Project
GWCT Wales is partnering with the Anglesey Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) on a biodiversity project funded by the Sustainable Development Fund (SDF). Active across four farms, the initiative supports farmland birds through winter seed feeding and monitors wildlife using trail cameras, bioacoustic recorders, and AI-powered cameras developed with Liverpool John Moores University. These tools help identify species and track movement through natural corridors.
Drone surveys are also offered to assess hedgerow structure and guide future habitat improvements. The project includes community outreach, with plans to engage with local schools and share findings at the Anglesey Show.
Farm Gate Project
This project will entail deploying 130 Artificial Intelligence Cameras across a farming landscape. These farms will be selected at random and will cover a range of different farming practices and habitats.
The project aims to better understand farmland biodiversity across a set area. Including the
abundance of a range of species including but not limited to Fox, Badger, Squirrel and
farmland bird species. Work will also be undertaken to look at relationships between
animals and interactions between wildlife and farm livestock.
Past and Ongoing Projects
GWCT Wales SMS Partnerships
GWCT Wales has been involved in several Welsh Government-funded Sustainable Management Scheme (SMS) projects across the country. The principle of SMS is to support collaborative landscape-scale projects delivering nature-based solutions to improve the resilience of our natural resources and ecosystems in a way that also delivers benefits to farm businesses and the health and well-being of rural communities.
Bro Cors Caron SMS, Ceredigion
The project area borders the north-east end of the 1,976-acre Cors Caron National Nature Reserve, which is part of the largest lowland raised bog in Britain. Adopting the GWCT’s Farmer Cluster approach, conservation measures have been implemented across eight farms in order to reverse local biodiversity declines and improve the water quality and soil health while maintaining productive and profitable farming enterprises.
Camlad Valley SMS, Powys
Another Farmer Cluster partnership of 18 farms aimed at improving soil health, water quality, and biodiversity, combined with community wellbeing. The area is home to one of the last remaining populations of curlew breeding in lowland Wales and the project is linked to Curlew Country, the wader conservation initiative, which hopes to reverse declines through the GWCT three-legged stool principle of habitat creation, food availability, and predation management.
‘Cynnal Coetir’ Elwy Valley SMS, North East Wales
Covering an area of 23,500 hectares in North East Wales, centred around the Elwy river catchment and working with multiple landowners, the project centres around four themes, which all affect woodland health and resilience:
- Deer research into the locally abundant fallow deer population – two PhD students from Bangor University are working on this element. We are also conducting activity and impact assessments across the area along with drone surveys.
- Grey squirrel impacts and control – developing bark stripping survey methods and a local abundance tool using feed hoppers as an indicator.
- Himalayan balsam survey of river catchment – survey of entire river catchment utilising drone photography and AI recognition. Working with GEOM project Aberystwyth University to develop AI recognition software.
- Education – We have partnered with a local Woodland Skills Centre, where they are running sessions to re-connect children with woodland and wildlife. We are also going out to schools to run sessions.
Other partners include Liverpool John Moores University working on AI recognition of trail camera footage, North Wales Rivers Trust regarding invasives, and APHA working on their grey squirrel immuno-contraceptive.
The Welsh Farmland Bird Initiative, Gwynedd and Denbighshire
A GWCT Wales-led three-year European Innovation Partnership (EIP) Wales project, joint funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Welsh Government. Its goal is to demonstrate how farmland bird numbers can be boosted on Welsh livestock farms through a combination of wild bird seed cover crops and supplementary winter feeding. The two demonstration sites are a traditional Welsh hill farm and a lowland dairy farm to show the measures can be successfully applied in both upland and lowland areas.
Winter Feeding Project, Ceredigion
This collaborative project with the Ceredigion Local Nature Partnership encouraged farmers to distribute supplementary feed for songbirds in winter. 25 farms across the county were given a Perdix Farmland Feeder and 250kg of bird seed mix donated by Kings Crops, enough to last the duration of the hungry gap. The objective was to raise awareness of the value of this measure particularly in livestock farming regions and to engage farmers with the bird life on their farms.