Six years after it was first recommended, the water vole is finally to receive full protection from the law, under new proposals announced by Defra.

London Wildlife Trust welcomes this important announcement, which we’ve worked hard towards and has been a long time coming. The recommendation for full protection was made as part of the Quinquennial Review of the Wildlife and Countryside Act in 2002.

It will now be against the law to intentionally kill a water vole or to intentionally, or recklessly, damage or disturb the places they use for shelter or protection, meaning that their future is a safer one.

While the water vole is extinct elsewhere in the UK, this endangered mammal is holding on in pockets of London – particularly in the last remnants of ancient grazing marsh in the East End.

Find out more about London Wildlife Trust's work with the water vole.

Have you seen a water vole?  Let us know via the Greenspace Information for Greater London website.