A PRESTIGIOUS award has been given Abberton Reservoir's Nature Discovery Park for its impact on nature and society.

The Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management presented the award to the park run by Essex Wildlife Trust.

The CIEEM represents and supports ecologists and environmental managers in the UK and abroad.

Its awards celebrate the success of projects, businesses and individuals who have made a significant contribution to protecting and restoring the natural environment.

Essex Wildlife Trust’s Abberton Reservoir Nature Discovery Park was nominated for its partnership project with Essex and Suffolk Water on the expansion of Abberton Reservoir to secure future water supplies.

The wildlife charity saw this as a unique opportunity to enhance the area for nature and people.

The new Nature Discovery Centre was constructed on the nature reserve as part of the Abberton Reservoir Enhancement Scheme and opened to the public in spring 2012.

Its visitor centre and nature reserve have since been "outstandingly" successful in creating suitable wildlife habitats.

The centre's design was inspired by the landscape in which it sits.

Essex Wildlife Trust, working in partnership with Essex and Suffolk Water, has delivered volunteer work parties to undertake crucial habitat creation and management around the reserve.

So far, volunteers have helped plant more than 40,000 trees and shrubs in the new reserve area.

An Essex Wildlife Trust spokesman said: "Throughout the project, the vision to enhance the site for wildlife was at the centre of decisions.

"Some of the conservation work carried out to benefit wildlife includes profiling the slopes of the new reservoir to maximise habitat for wetland birds, planting saplings, creating new wetland habitat and establishing aquatic vegetation. Together with Essex & Suffolk Water, Essex Wildlife Trust also undertook innovative projects resulting in increases in populations of water vole, a range of bird species and reptiles and carried out pond management to benefit insects and amphibians such as great crested newt.

This project has enabled an already important wetland habitat to be transformed into a thriving nature reserve and inspiring Nature Discovery Centre.