This year has secured some “major nature wins”, from spoonbill breeding success to an impressive comeback for one of the UK’s largest spiders, conservationists said.

Other wins for nature in 2024 include closing of sandeel fisheries which has thrown seabirds such as puffins a “lifeline”, to saving one of the world’s rarest birds with the help of a species of wasp, and international efforts to reverse declines for an antelope in Kazakhstan, the RSPB said.

The charity is highlighting some of the successes secured in 2024 to show what can be achieved with conservation efforts – even as it warns of the challenges nature faces.

With climate change, habitat loss and development hitting wildlife – and with just five years to meet legal targets to conserve nature – the RSPB is calling on the Government to urgently invest in action to save species and habitats.

RSPB chief executive Beccy Speight urged ministers to increase the UK agricultural budget to help farmers deliver nature-friendly farming, and to ensure energy infrastructure development and house building support nature and do not take place where it is already thriving.

The RSPB has highlighted some of the successes it has secured this year at its reserves and further afield.

They include spoonbills, which were driven to extinction in the UK hundreds of years ago by hunting and draining of wetlands, but are making a comeback here thanks to an increase in numbers in Europe following conservation efforts to conserve its habitat, the RSPB said.

The wetland birds with their distinctive spoon-shaped bill nested at the RSPB’s Ouse Washes reserve in East Anglia for the first time since the 17th century, and also saw breeding numbers increase at Havergate Island, Suffolk, and Fairburn Ings, West Yorkshire.

Another species making a comeback in the UK is the fen raft spider, one of the UK’s largest spiders which hunts its prey on the water’s surface, and which has been helped by introductions to new sites and managing grazing marshes to suit the very rare arachnids.

The RSPB said there are now potentially 3,750 females at Mid Yare nature reserve on the Norfolk Broads, where the spider was first introduced in 2012.

The charity also said it has been campaigning for the closure of sandeel fisheries since 1996, as the industrial catching of the small fish threatened the survival of seabirds such as puffins and kittiwakes, and in January the fisheries were closed in the English North Sea and all Scottish waters.

But the EU has challenged the decision by the UK Government over the fish, which are targeted by European vessels for their oil and use in feed for livestock and farmed salmon, prompting conservationists to campaign to ensure there is no rollback on the “hard-won victory”.

Ms Speight said: “The closure of industrial sandeel fisheries has provided a lifeline to under-pressure seabird species such as puffins and kittiwakes that depend on sandeels for food.

“Their populations are in serious decline and this closure is an essential first step towards helping their populations to recover, thereby underpinning wider marine food chains that support our seabirds.”

Further afield, one of the world’s rarest birds, the Wilkin’s bunting – which is only found on remote Nightingale Island in the South Atlantic, is staving off extinction with the help of a species of wasp.

The bird specialises on feeding from one tree native to the island in the Tristan da Cunha group, and was hit by an invasive scale insect which devastated the island’s forest after it was accidentally introduced.

A small parasitic wasp which targets the scale insect has been introduced to control the pest, with positive results, giving the bird a chance to recover.

And an international collaboration including the RSPB has delivered habitat restoration and the recovery of the saiga antelope in Kazakhstan, with numbers of the key species rising to 2.8 million animals, from lows of 40,000 just 20 years ago in the wake of poaching for their horns.

The RSPB said the initiative over 75 million hectares, which won the Earthshot Prize 2024, benefited other species including steppe eagles, social lapwings, kulan or wild ass and Przewalski’s horse.

With just five years remaining to deliver on legally binding 2030 nature targets, the UK Government must urgently invest in nature

Ms Speight said: “This year has secured major nature wins – from the historic sandeel fishing closure to saving species like Saiga antelope from extinction – the RSPB has demonstrated what can be achieved through vital conservation efforts.”

She added: “With just five years remaining to deliver on legally binding 2030 nature targets, the UK Government must urgently invest in nature and commit to a programme of action that will keep common species common and save those on the brink of being lost.”

An Environment Department (Defra) spokesperson said: “This Government is committed to protecting and restoring nature, including reversing the decline in species.

“That is why we are investing over £400 million pounds into nature’s recovery to create habitats for wildlife to thrive and families to enjoy.

“We are also investing £5 billion into farming over the next two years – the largest ever directed at sustainable food production and nature recovery in our country’s history.”