Freshwater Habitats Trust

Freshwater Habitats Trust (FHT) is a UK-based registered charity (Charity no. 1107708) which was originally founded in 1988 as ‘Pond Action’. The organisation’s mission is to protect freshwater life for everyone to enjoy. The charity is evidence-based with a strong science grounding, highly strategic, targeting its work where evidence suggests it will be most effective, concerned with all freshwaters including those that are small and undervalued like ponds, headwater streams, flushes and ditches. The charity works in partnership with people, communities and organisations to get the best results for freshwater wildlife. FHT undertakes a wide range of research, practical conservation, policy work and public engagement. Although based in the UK, the organisation has a wide network of European and international collaborators, is a co-founder of the European Pond Conservation Network and works closely with NGOs and freshwater specialists throughout Europe. FHT research is concerned with the whole of the freshwater network (ponds, lakes, streams and rivers), specialising in characterising aquatic biodiversity at the landscape scale. The organisation has played a significant role in developing understanding internationally of the ecological importance of ponds, has undertaken groundbreaking research on the importance of small waterbodies (still and flowing) generally, developed the world’s first national monitoring programme for a protected species using environmental DNA and helped to found the UK River Restoration Centre. In the UK, FHT has helped develop new legal protections for small waterbodies, including recognition in UK law of ‘priority ponds’, and undertakes a wide range of practical projects creating new ponds (‘Million Ponds Project) and managing the ‘best of the best’ sites known as Flagship Ponds. Among other projects, it has been involved in PONDERFUL. For more information please check: https://freshwaterhabitats.org.uk/