The Newt Conservation Partnership is a community benefit society formed through partnership between two charities: Freshwater Habitats Trust and Amphibian and Reptile Conservation. We create, restore and monitor high quality habitat for Great Crested Newts. We are fully funded via NatureSpace Partnership’s District and Organisational Licensing schemes.
As the sole practical delivery partner for the schemes we create and restore clean water ponds and high-quality terrestrial habitat for Great Crested Newts to compensate for habitat lost or degraded by development in 11 counties for District Licensing, and nationally for Organisational Licences.
Our objective is simple: to improve the conservation status of Great Crested Newt at local and landscape scale in the regions in which we operate.
For more information about the NatureSpace licensing schemes please visit the NatureSpace website.
- Pond created by the Newt Conservation Partnership at Bicester Garrison on the Buckinghamshire-Oxfordshire border.
The NatureSpace District Licensing Scheme covers over 70 planning authorities in Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Milton Keynes, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, Surrey and West Sussex. We also provide compensation habitat delivery via Organisational Licences for Network Rail nationally, National Highways in South and Central England and the HS2 decommissioning project in Staffordshire.
How our work benefits newts and other wildlife
46%
of ponds occupied by Great Crested Newt
9/10
of mature sites occupied by Great Crested Newt
95%
of ponds have clean water
More than half
of ponds support regionally rare or nationally threatened plants
Working in partnership for better conservation outcomes
Working in partnership with a range of landowners, we carefully choose compensation sites for habitat creation and restoration where ponds will have a clean water source, a high chance of population viability and are within range of an existing newt population to maximise the chance of natural colonisation. This results in better conservation outcomes as newt populations are strengthened and can expand across the countryside.
The Newt Conservation Partnership funds all habitat creation or restoration work. We then secure management agreements and provide annual payments to landowners to ensure newt habitat can be maintained for at least the next 25 years.
- Newt Conservation Partnership pond creation in action
Biodiversity Net Gain
Newt Conservation Partnership is also a designated Responsible Body, supporting developers and landowners to deliver high-quality Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG).
We design, create and secure biodiversity units on behalf of NatureSpace Partnership. Our expertise in habitat design, delivery, monitoring and management means we can ensure long-term ecological value and achieve measurable gains for nature. Our approach ensures biodiversity units are delivered responsibly, transparently and with lasting benefits for wildlife, landscapes and local communities.
For more information about BNG, please visit the NatureSpace website.
See some of the high quality habitat created by the Newt Conservation Partnership
Pond created by the Newt Conservation Partnership as part of an award-winning habitat restoration scheme at Bicester Garrison.
Pond creation in progress at Boothby Wildland in February 2023. We like to keep digger track marks – see foreground – in and around our ponds as this creates microhabitats for all sorts of wildlife. We leave the finishing to weathering by rain, wind and frost, so our ponds eventually have a more natural look.
Four new clean water ponds at Boothby Wildland in an ex-arable field adjacent to mature woodland. Great Crested Newts were recorded in all of these ponds two years after creation.
One of eight clean water ponds at one of the NCP compensation sites around Yardley Chase SSSI. The site already supports a new breeding population of Great Crested Newt and also Red Pondweed (Potamogeton alpinus), a Vulnerable plant species in England.
One of the four ponds created by the Newt Conservation Partnership in 2020. These ponds already support breeding populations of Great Crested Newt and Common Toad, both priority species.
A frog supervising the creation of a new clean water pond in a woodland SSSI in Hampshire.