A £907,000, three-year project aims to help recover the Moss carder bumblebee, one of the UK’s most threatened pollinators. Led by the Bumblebee Conservation Trust with the University of Cambridge, it will focus on habitats in Cornwall, Kent and the North Pennines, where the species faces pressure from habitat loss and fragmentation.

The project will work with landowners to test small-scale habitat improvements and study the bee’s behaviour and needs. More than £530,000 comes from Natural England’s Species Recovery Programme; Moss carders live in small, isolated populations and forage relatively close to their nests.