During the Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro in 1992 150 nations - among them the United Kingdom -signed the Convention on Biological Diversity. This states that the Government shall: "Rehabilitate and restore degraded ecosystems and promote the recovery of threatened species" 

On a national level, the UK Action Plan  for biodiversity was launched in 1994. Since then action plans for nationally important species and habitats have been produced and are periodically reviewed.

These form the basis of Cambridgeshire's action plans, along with other locally important habitats and species. The County's Biodiversity Action Plans have been put together by a local steering group, incorporating local authorities, conservation organisations and statutory bodies and were launched in 2000.