Both the Kent Downs AONB and the PNR C MO shelter key species such as adders and bats, for which specific cross border habitat management and restoration activities are underway.

In Kent, the Northern viper or adder (Vipera berus) is widely distributed across the North Downs but there is clear evidence that populations are of significant conservation concern. Threats to the adders include agricultural intensification, commercial and residential development projects, unsympathetic management of terrestrial vegetation and direct persecution. The adder has been listed as a red data book species in Kent since the year 2000. Despite this, habitats in which they occur are often unsympathetically managed, even by conservation practitioners. In 2007, increasing concerns for the national conservation status of the adder was recognised when the species was listed as a Biodiversity Action Plan Priority Species. The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 gives adders protection against deliberate killing and injury. Unfortunately, their habitat is not protected and it is perfectly legal to destroy hibernacula and foraging areas, providing that individual animals are not killed in the process. This results in often poor attempts to translocate whole adder populations from proposed development sites.

The adder faces similar threats in northern France.

The Landscape and Nature for All project will evaluate the distribution of adder populations and will produce a cross border Action Plan to protect the adder in Kent and Northern France. The project will also organize exchanges about the different approaches to adder conservation.