With the publication of the UK Country Report to the FAO on Farm Animal Genetic Resources in 2002, UK Government recognised that national Farm Animal Genetic Resources (FAnGR) includes two main groups – Mainstream Breeds and Breeds at Risk. Within Breeds at Risk, two distinct components have emerged: a) those breeds that are locally adapted and/or distinctive but not numerically scarce, and b) those which are rare and therefore in need of more urgent conservation action. In the UK, the Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST) administers native rare breed conservation in association with the relevant breed societies and individual owners. The RBST is a registered charity and membership organisation, established in 1973 as an extension of a working party formed in 1968 by the Royal Agricultural Society of England and the Zoological Society of London to save endangered breeds of UK livestock. Previously, no formal support or recognition structure existed for native breeds of farm animal in danger of extinction, and at least 20 native breeds had vanished during the 20th century as a result. In the last thirty years the work of the RBST has successfully ensured that no further extinctions have occurred, but now some real opportunities for expansion of its traditional conservation activities exist. Through publication of the Country Report, the UK now formally recognises 24 rare cattle breeds, 2 rare goat breeds, 8 rare pig breeds, 36 rare sheep breeds, 17 rare equine breeds and 9 rare poultry breeds, and with a number of national strategies emerging to coincide with EU agricultural reform, an opportunity exists to reassess needs and priorities in several main areas for this valuable component of UK FAnGR.