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Beavers can regenerate landscapes, encourage wildlife and prevent flooding – and they have friends in high places

The must-have accessory for every English country estate was once a gothic folly, a ha-ha or a croquet lawn. Now it is a pair of beavers.

Landowners and large estates are racing to acquire licences to reintroduce the water-loving rodents, which were hunted to extinction in Britain 400 years ago.

Devon Wildlife Trust have released an invitation to tender for the Torridge River Restoration Project.

The Environment Agency has pledged £300,000 for a master plan to restore a river that dried up last summer.

A lake that is part of the River Ver in Verulamium Park, St Albans completely disappeared in September last year, when more than 200 people protested outside the Ye Olde Fighting Cocks pub.

The protest, organised by the Ver Valley Society, called for authorities to acknowledge how dry the river had become.

The government has published a series of guidance, tools, datasets and case studies intended to help put an economic value on the natural environment.

The ‘Enabling a Natural Capital Approach’ (ENCA) package was published today, to sit alongside the Treasury’s ‘Green Book’ on the financial appraisal of policies and projects. It should encourage the wider adoption of natural capital techniques across government, though is also suitable for use across the broader public and private sectors.