By Alice Howard, Senior Data Scientist
Defra and Natural England have published the 2026 habitat target metric, showing that action has been undertaken on 77,638 hectares to create or restore wildlife-rich habitat across England since January 2023, nearly double last year's reported figure. The update includes data from a wider range of Defra group partners and, for the first time, contributions from external organisations such as Buglife and the Newt Conservation Partnership. While there is still much more to do on the journey to the Environment Act target of 500,000 hectares by 2042, the evidence shows that habitat creation and restoration is well underway.
Conservation mix on an arable field margin. Credit: Peter RoworthCreating and restoring habitats is crucial for restoring England’s biodiversity and recovering our nature. The Environment Act habitat target is to restore or create 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat outside of protected sites, by 2042.
In 2025, we published the first habitat target metric to show progress towards the habitat target, which showed that action had been undertaken on 38,877 hectares since January 2023. This marked an important milestone in understanding how delivery towards the statutory target was beginning to take shape.
Defra and Natural England have now published the 2026 habitat target metric. This new metric gives us an updated picture of what is happening on the ground to deliver habitat for nature, with additional data and new contributions from external partners.
The updated evidence shows that since January 2023 there are now 77,638 hectares where action has been undertaken to create or restore wildlife-rich habitat across England. This represents an increase on last year’s reported figure, reflecting both additional delivery on the ground and the inclusion of further datasets.
This year’s figure now includes data on habitats provided from a wide range of partners working hard to create new wildlife-rich habitats. These include Defra group delivery from Natural England, the Environment Agency, the Farming Directorate (Countryside Stewardship and the Sustainable Farming Incentive), Farming in Protected Landscapes, the Forestry Commission, Forestry England, and the Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme.
For the first time, the analysis also includes data provided voluntarily from external partners, such as Buglife, National Trails and the Newt Conservation Partnership, reflecting the vital role that partnership working plays in restoring nature.
The new reporting figure reflects only part of total delivery towards the habitat target, as not all delivery mechanisms can be included at this stage. Some mechanisms, such as Landscape Recovery, are still in the early stages and have not yet reached the point where data is available for reporting. As these mechanisms continue to scale up, we expect reported habitat creation and restoration to increase over time. In the meantime, the evidence is consistent with our expectations as we work towards 2042.
The habitat target metric shows that, as expected, agri-environment schemes have delivered most of the target to date. This is because many schemes are well established meaning creation of habitat could happen relatively quickly. Most delivery to date has come from arable field margins with comparatively smaller areas delivered for habitats such as heathland, ponds, and coastal and riparian habitats. Arable field margin habitats are relatively easy to create, and the science behind them is well understood. Because we need to ensure the full range of wildlife‑rich habitats are restored or created, the contribution of wildflower rich arable field margins is capped at 40,000 hectares. This cap has now been reached. This does not mean that no further arable field margins will be created or funded. Rather, additional delivery of this habitat type will not be added to the reported total, and over the lifetime of the target some arable field margins are likely to fall out of schemes and be replaced by others.
The report also provides information on where action is being taken, reported by the amount of delivery in each Local Nature Recovery Strategy area. For the first time, this includes a national map showing the geographic distribution of reported habitat creation and restoration across England. This map helps provides insight into whether delivery is contributing to the Lawton principles of more, bigger, better and joined up d-up sites for nature. It shows that while some larger habitat patches are emerging, much delivery continues to occur in smaller patches across England. Projects such as those under Landscape Recovery will be important for landscape scale delivery in future years.
Planted hedgerow gaps. Credit: Peter RoworthGoing forward, the intention is for the habitat target metric to be incorporated into future releases of the England Biodiversity Indicators, with the next update planned for winter 2026.
Producing the 2025 and 2026 habitat target metric has been a genuinely collaborative effort between Natural England and Defra, underpinning how progress towards the statutory habitat target is understood.
There is much more to do, but this habitat target metric shows that work to create and restore habitat is well underway.
seen at 09:45, 15 May in Natural England.