Vanishing Viper 2025 - a landscape-level approach to adder conservation

We are delighted to welcome you to Vanishing Viper 2025, which will once again bring together wildlife conservation groups and NGOs, land managers, statutory bodies and local authority planners, consultant ecologists, academic researchers, students and of course, our amazing volunteers; from across the United Kingdom and Northern Europe, to discuss how best to conserve our native adder (Vipera berus).

We will be hearing from a range of expert speakers who will present different aspects of adder ecology and key conservation issues and their solutions. Building on discussions held at previous meetings, this event will focus on a landscape approach, and we will learn more about landscape-level projects in: Scotland, Wales, the North Pennines, The West Midlands, East Anglia, Somerset and Kent, as well as case studies from The Netherlands and Hungary.

For more information please visit our web-page

And you can download the programme here:

Topics covered will include:

• adder ecology and behaviour

• modelling adder habitat suitability across landscapes

• building adder conservation into wider landscape-scale ambitions

• modelling the impact of climate change on adders

• assessing genetic diversity and the potential for inbreeding in UK adder populations

• practical habitat management for adders, including conservation grazing and peatland management

• managing a complex landscape with a range of challenges including: public recreational pressures and range of other protected species and taxa

There will also be two extended interactive workshop sessions on:

• Defining disturbance to adders, its impacts, and considerations for land management; facilitated by Kevin Palmer (University of Chester) and Becky Turner (UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology)

• Assessing the opportunities and challenges for adder conservation translocations in the UK?; facilitated by Richard Griffiths (University of Kent) and Gemma Harding (Natural England).

Our speakers will include: Nigel Hand (ARG UK, Central Ecology), Emma Gardner (UKCEH), Bálint Halpern (MME BirdLife Hungary), Yvonne Radstake (Reptile, Amphibian & Fish Conservation Netherlands - RAVON), Jim Foster (Amphibian and Reptile Conservation), Lucy Struthers (University of Newcastle), John Dickson (RAGS - Somerset), Richard Harris (Cannock Chase National Landscape Partnership), Tom Wells (Natural England), Henry Barrett (North Pennines National Landscape team), Catherine Whatley (NatureScot), Matt Cooke (Amphibian and Reptile Conservation), Henry Crisp and Ben Owens (University of Bangor), Richard Griffiths (University of Kent), Gemma Harding (Natural England), David Orchard (Lancashire ARG), Neil Madden (Arcadis), Emma Douglas (Pasture for Life), Stephen Corcoran (Forestry and Land Scotland) and Dave Pollard (Cumbria ARG).

#vanishing viper 2025

Event logo copyright: Anna Maka, Nottingham Trent University

Images copyright: Kevin Clarke, BB&C ARG, Angela Julian.

For information about event sponsorship please download our sponsorship options here