WETLANDS near the River Severn and beyond are set for a funding boost of more than £110,000 from the government to help aid nature’s recovery and "tackle climate change".

Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust (GWT) announced on Thursday (July 29) that its ’Wetland Recovery in the Severn Vale’ project had been selected as one of 90 nature-based projects in England to benefit from the second round of funding from the government’s Green Recovery Challenge Fund.

Through the £40 million fund, the government is supporting projects to create and retain thousands of green jobs and accelerate works to protect nature across the country.

GWT’s Wetland Recovery in the Severn Vale project was established to improve more than 150 hectares of "priority coastal and floodplain grazing marsh" near the Severn to protect and enhance existing wildlife habitats.

The project will also see more than 50 "interpretation and access" features installed at local wetlands to enhance visitor experience and raise awareness of the importance of wetland habitat.

The trust is also looking to establish a new team of trained monitoring volunteers to collate evidence for "directing nature’s recovery" and enable locally led advocacy for wetlands and wetland priority species.

Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust’s Lead Land Manager West Del Jones said: "Our project will restore priority wetland habitat in the Severn Vale, an internationally important wetland system threatened by climate change, agricultural intensification and development pressure.

"We will take a landscape approach, expanding established wetland restoration activities on GWT’s estate and prioritising collaborations with private landowners in the Severn Vale region.

"This will not only ensure critical resilience planning for wildlife recovery and climate change adaption at a regional scale, but also enable increased access to nature and green spaces - supporting both the physical and mental wellbeing of local communities."

The project will receive a total of £111,900 from the government fund, which will support the enhancement of "ecologically important" habitat between inland wetlands and the designated Severn Estuary SPA (Special Protection Area) and Ramsar site, which begins at Awre in the Forest and includes stretches of the river at Lydney, Chepstow and Caldicot.

The investment will also enable the recruitment of a new Wetland Recovery Project Officer, as well as the appointment of a specialist Wetland Recovery Consultant to "support legacy planning".

The programme of work will expand on an existing partnership between GWT and water company Severn Trent, which has already committed funding to enhance wetland biodiversity in the Severn Vale.

The company recently started preparatory works on a new wetland in Cinderford, near to its Crump Meadow sewage works at Cinderford Brook, ready for construction to begin in August.

The government’s Green Recovery Challenge Fund was developed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and its arm’s-length bodies to help "kick-start nature recovery" as part of the Prime Minister’s 10-point plan to tackle climate change.

The fund is being delivered by The National Lottery Heritage Fund in partnership with Natural England, the Environment Agency and the Forestry Commission.