Research and analysis

Farming Sector Environmental Objectives: wildlife-rich habitat maintenance

Published 22 October 2026

Applies to England

1. Objective title

The farming sector and delivery partners will support the management of wildlife-rich habitat outside of protected sites, maintaining the extent in existing schemes as at 2024, increasing to include management of wildlife-rich habitat newly created and restored up to 2042. 

2. Objective overview

Bigger, better and more connected habitats are essential to support abundant and resilient wildlife across England. The abundance of species across England has, on average, declined by around 40% since 1970, reflecting pressures on habitats and ecosystems. Known drivers of species decline across multiple taxonomic groups include land-use change, agricultural practices and habitat degradation.

While many initiatives across Defra focus on creating and restoring new extents of wildlife-rich habitat. However, thriving wildlife also depends on sustaining and improving the condition of newly created and existing habitats through effective long-term stewardship. sustaining and improving the condition for wildlife to thrive will depend on effective long‑term stewardship.

This objective aims to maintain and, where needed, improve condition across a range of wildlife-rich habitats through agri‑environment schemes.

3. Relevant targets and commitments

30by30

Under the Global Biodiversity Framework, the UK government has agreed to:

• effectively conserve and manage 30% of our land and sea for nature by 2030

The framework does not set specific pathways to meet the target, which are devolved to the individual nations. Defra has produced the 30by30 on land: Delivery plan which focusses on the creation, restoration and long-term management of wildlife-rich habitat to meet the target. Wildlife-rich habitats managed under this objective could contribute to the 30by30 target, where the protection criteria is also met.

Environment Act 2021

The Environment Act 2021 sets several statutory targets focussed on species abundance and reducing species extinction risk, stating:

• halt the decline in species abundance by 2030, as represented by the overall relative species abundance index

• increase the relative species abundance index by 2042 so that it is greater than in 2022 and at least 10% greater than in 2030

• improve the Red List Index for England for species extinction by 2042 compared to 2022 levels

Interactions with other environment objectives

Habitats delivered through Wildlife-Rich Habitat – Creation and Restoration will subsequently be maintained under this objective.

Many environmental land management (ELM) actions contributing to this objective align with species objectives including Invasive Non-Native Species, Farm Wildlife and Hedgerows. Actions to control invasive species and support farmland wildlife play an important role in maintaining wildlife‑rich habitats, particularly where they enhance features such as hedgerows and traditional orchards.

This objective aligns with other objectives that focus on wildlife-rich habitat’ status, including Peatland Restoration and Management and Native Woodland. There is no overlap, however, as this objective focusses on specific habitats not covered by other objectives.

4. Delivery approach

Work is underway to establish the current extent of wildlife‑rich habitat under agri‑environment schemes, which will form the baseline for this objective.  This will exclude habitat already within protected sites. Once this baseline is established, newly created and restored wildlife‑rich habitat from Wildlife-Rich Habitat – Creation and Restoration can be included.

Agri‑environment schemes are being assessed to understand how they interact with different habitat types, identifying which actions support the maintenance of each priority habitat. Once this assessment is complete, the required level of uptake can be calculated.

A list of wildlife-rich habitats can be found in Environment Act Habitat Target – Definitions and Descriptions, however this also includes those that are the focus of wider environmental objectives such as peatland and woodland.

5. Metadata

Objective	Wildlife-Rich Habitat - Maintenance
Related commitments	Statutory wildlife-rich habitat management targets
Reporting status	Final
Contributing schemes	CS, CSHT
Aggregation method	Agreements live as at the capture date
Geographical scope	England
First reported	October 2026
Last updated	October 2026