With more than 60% of traditional orchards in England vanished since the 1950s, Natural England has launched a project to halt the loss of traditional orchards across England and help revive their fortunes. Funding from Natural England's Countdown 2010 Biodiversity Action fund has already enabled the National Trust to recruit an 'orchard officer', Kate Merry, to champion the cause of traditional orchards on behalf of the Habitat Action Plan group.

The Government recognised the importance of traditional orchards to wildlife in 2007. Natural England acting chair Poul Christensen says: "Traditional orchards are a classic feature of the English landscape and are ideal habitats for threatened and protected species.

"Successful orchards are worth their weight in gold, not just for the valuable contribution they make to the economy but to the subsequent enhancement of these precious wildlife habitats.

"This project is one of many across the country using grants from our Countdown 2010 fund, to help halt biodiversity loss."

A traditional orchard is defined as having at least five fruit trees. The trees are widely spaced and allowed to reach a veteran-hollowed and gnarled-stage. They are subject to low intensity management with few or no chemical inputs and they're often grazed by animals such as sheep or cut for hay. Though they are relatively small in area traditional orchards are important for a wide range of species.

At a time of decline for the honey bee traditional orchards provide a welcome source of pollen and nectar, while elusive insects such as the noble chafer beetle lurk in the dead wood of older fruit trees. Traditional orchards also provide nesting and feeding areas for declining bird species such as lesser spotted woodpeckers.

The UK signed up to restore national biodiversity at the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992. It wasn't until traditional orchards were recognised as a Priority Habitat that the domesticated biodiversity of apple, pear, plum, damson and cherry varieties - received the protection they deserve.

The traditional orchards project will go a long way to raising the profile of local fruit varieties, and so contributing to their conservation and use. Work is now set to begin on helping to improve the conditions of existing orchards and helping to create new ones to build a secure future.

There will be wildlife and fruit variety surveys to help establish a better understanding of these habitats and training workshops on the practicalities of managing an orchard from pruning to planting and propagating.

Merry says: "We now have a real opportunity to reverse the decline of traditional orchards and recognise the important role they play in our cultural and natural heritage; if we don't act there is a real danger that they will not survive the twenty-first century.

"Working with organisations such as PTES, Common Ground, and local orchard groups will be the key to creating a new generation of orchards across England."

National Trust head of nature conservation Dr David Bullock says: "Traditional orchards have been disappearing at an alarming rate over the last 60 years.

"We are in real danger of losing these unique habitats - and the wildlife, local fruit varieties and their rich heritage - and if we don't act in some cases we will not even know what local varieties of fruit have been lost."