Ambitious plans are being drawn up to rejuvenate nature across vast swathes of Norfolk farmland after landowners teamed up to win a share of £25m in government funding.
Grants were awarded to 34 projects across England in the second round of Defra's Landscape Recovery scheme - part of the new system of environmental incentives aimed at replacing former EU subsidies which are being phased out after Brexit.
They include four partnerships covering more than 35,000 hectares in East Anglia, with plans to restore wetlands and saltmarsh on the north-west Norfolk coast and create massive natural wildlife corridors further inland in the west of the county, as well as projects in the Ouse Washes and the Stour Valley in Suffolk.
It is hoped that collaborations on this scale could dramatically improve the fortunes of the region's wildlife, while maintaining sustainable food production.
Among the successful bids was the West Norfolk Nature Network (WNNN), which will see a group of 16 farms and estates working together to "transform the ecological landscape" by creating huge, wide corridors of scrub to act as wildlife habitats and "conduits".
One of the landowners is Olly Birkbeck, a director of the Little Massingham Estate who is also a founding trustee of the WildEast nature movement.
He said the group has been awarded about £750,000 for a two-year "implementation phase", to formulate a viable 30-year plan which works for all the separate estates involved.
"Our project is based on these billowing arteries of scrub running through our farmed landscape across 16 landholdings," he said.
"The idea is about landscape recovery, so we are moving away from AB8 and AB9 (flower-rich margins and winter bird food plots) and cultivated margins, and all the little bits and bobs of stewardship which have failed to do anything over the decades.
"We want to see these big 100m-wide connected, scrubby corridors, snaking for 50 miles through the countryside from Swaffham to Houghton.
"It is a natural habitat which will provide food all year round and be visible for miles. It will completely change the way the landscape looks, and we will farm the land in between."
The aim is to use these corridors to connect the landscape along with restored rivers, woodland, hedges and footpaths - bringing the added potential benefit of greater public interaction.
Mr Birkbeck described the ideal scrub corridor as a "fortress of hawthorn, blackthorn, blackberry and birch", adding: "We want to see turtle doves, stone curlews and other keynote species coming back to the scrubland we have created, so we can turn things around, rather than accelerating the decline of nature".
Meanwhile, the neighbouring North-West Norfolk Coast Project aims to create 5,000ha of wildlife-rich habitat including wetlands, saltmarsh, species-rich grasslands and wood-pasture heath, as well as restoring three chalk rivers and improving coastal flood mitigation measures.
This partnership includes the royal estate at Sandringham, and the former BBC Springwatch base at Wild Ken Hill, which is already undertaking a major rewilding and regenerative farming project.
A spokesperson for the group said: “The group of coastal land managers between Heacham and King’s Lynn are aligned in their desire to be good custodians of this unique landscape.
“We have held initial meetings about collaborating more closely, including discussing opportunities to make further improvements for the local environment. We know nature needs connectivity and scale, which is why we need to work together on this.
“The government’s Landscape Recovery scheme allows land managers to co-design bespoke agreements to produce environmental goods on a landscape scale, in order to meet priority national policies.
"The group is now able to explore opportunities to benefit the local environment further."
Another funded partnership will create wetland habitats across 4,000 hectares in the internationally important Ouse Washes, stretching from near St Ives in Cambridgeshire to Downham Market in Norfolk.
The government's Landscape Recovery scheme aims to "deliver outcomes that require collaborative action across a large area", and is managed by Natural England and the Environment Agency.
The first round of the scheme helped other East Anglian partnerships including the Breckland Farmers Wildlife Network Project, and the North Norfolk: Wilder, Wetter, Better for Nature Project.
Natural England chairman Tony Juniper said: "It’s fantastic to see so many exciting and ambitious landscape-scale projects that will support some of our most precious habitats and sites for nature, help tackle climate change and improve the health of our waterways."
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