Cumbria has five wetlands designated as Ramsar sites: the Duddon Estuary, Esthwaite Water, Irthing Head Mires, Morecambe Bay and the Upper Solway Flats and Marshes.

Cumbria Wildlife Trust fought off the destruction of part of a Ramsar Site at Kirksanton, near Millom, last year.

David Harpley, Cumbria Wildlife Trust’s Conservation Manager, said: ‘Thanks to Cumbria Wildlife Trust’s members and supporters the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) dropped Kirksanton from a list of proposed nuclear power station sites. There were 1,024 responses to the consultation that disagreed with the proposal and 37% of those were a direct result of Cumbria Wildlife Trust’s campaign. In fact, there was more than double the number of objections to the inclusion of Kirksanton than of all the other 10 proposed sites put together.’

Thanks to wildlife conservation designations such as Ramsar, local people and charities are able to fight against proposals harmful to areas invaluable to wildlife.

Cumbria Wildlife Trust looks after several nature reserves within Ramsar sites, which are open for everyone to enjoy. Take a visit to Butterburn Flow Nature Reserve http://www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/butterburn-flow.html, in the north east corner of Cumbria in the Northumberland National Park. In the south of the county you can take a walk around South Walney Nature Reserve http://www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/south-walney.html, on Walney Island, or along a shingle spit out into Morecambe Bay at Foulney Island Nature Reserve http://www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/foulney-island.html