Founded in 2006, the Bumblebee Conservation Trust exists to address concerns about the future of the UK’s wild bumblebees.
A science-based organisation, both its day-to-day and long-term work is informed by best practice and scientific research.
Action and Inspiration
The Bumblebee Conservation Trust is an expert on bumblebee ecology, populations and conservation. The trust’s BeeWalk is a national survey to monitor the health of the country’s bumblebee population, and the organisation is also undertaking several projects that involve taking practical action to safeguard the UK’s bumblebees.
The charity aims to inspire people and organisations to take action for and champion bumblebees and help ensure there are more and better-connected habitats for bumblebees in the UK’s countryside, towns and cities.
A National Monitoring Scheme
BeeWalk was created to monitor and record the abundance of various bumblebee species that can be seen between March and October. Walking a fixed monitoring route, volunteer BeeWalkers head out once a month during this period and submit the data they’ve collected to the trust. This ever-growing dataset has now become one of the world’s biggest bumblebee datasets in the world.
The scheme has been designed to act as an early warning system when it comes to bumblebee population decline. The trust also works with several other research institutions to investigate a variety of subjects such as species habitat interactions and how bumblebee populations change in response to climate change and land use.
Bee the Change
The trust’s Bee the Change initiative is about simple, quick ways for people to make their local areas more friendly to bumblebees. There is a host of resources on the organisation’s website regarding making a garden more hospitable to bumblebees, such as monthly planting guides, advice on going pesticide free, community planting guides and information on sowing wildflower seeds.
Percent for Good’s Nature and Environment Portfolio
Percent for Good is a charity founded by Mark Lyttleton. It aims to make it as easy as possible for professionals to give regularly to the causes that matter to them most, whether it’s directly or via Payroll Giving.
The organisation has carefully curated several Cause Portfolios, one of which is the Nature and Environment Portfolio, which is made up of five charities. As well as the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, the portfolio includes Surfers Against Sewage, The Conservation Volunteers, The Rivers Trust and Rewilding Britain. The latter’s vision is to reconnect people with the natural world and tackle climate change and the species extinction crisis.