Abstract

Find out how we go about discovering the problems faced by threatened species, how we are using a range of exciting and novel conservation techniques to help this species and to hear about progress during the first three years. Project Godwit is a five year project funded by EU Life and the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Black-tailed godwits are a beautiful ground nesting wading bird that are dependent on wetlands. With a declining population of fewer than 50 breeding pairs, Project Godwit is an ambitious RSPB and Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust project that aims to prevent this species from becoming extinct in the UK. Dr Jen Smart is a Principal Conservation Scientist at the RSPB Centre for Conservation Science. Her research focuses on the ecology of breeding waders and developing conservation solutions to reverse their severe population declines. Increasingly this involves understanding and managing the impacts of predation and finding ways to influence landscape-scale management of wet grasslands.