Protecting Nature and Managing Risks with Suffolk Wildlife Trust
By Alan Boswell Group
Suffolk Wildlife Trust has been protecting and conserving nature in Suffolk since 1961. Part of a Federation of Wildlife Trusts which began over 100 years ago, Suffolk Wildlife Trust cares for nearly 8,000 acres of land, including 50 nature reserves, across the county. Originally started as a grassroots movement to protect a piece of land that became Redgrave and Lopham Fen nature reserve, the Trust was born out of a desire to protect nature across the county, contributing to the preservation of land to maintain and restore wildlife habitats.
As with many charitable Trusts, they are powered by their team of employees, an army of volunteers, and the vital support of their members; Suffolk Wildlife Trust has 80 employees, 1,100 volunteers, and 27,000 members dedicated to restoring and protecting nature across the county. We spoke with Michael Strand, Community Fundraising Manager, and Andy Wright, Facilities Manager, on the work they’re doing to protect nature, the challenges the Trust faces, and how Alan Boswell Group helps to protect the Trust through their insurance programme and risk management support.
“The Trust was a voluntary organisation to begin with. But that initial core group of people soon realised how many others wanted to support their campaign. And so, lots of little pockets of volunteer groups started to spring up to all over the county prepared to take action for wildlife in their local area. Those individual groups then became a network, growing into the registered charity it is now.” Michael notes on the origination of the charity.
Over the last 60 years, the Trust has evolved to concentrate its efforts around five key areas; as Michael explains, “We currently manage the 50 nature reserves where, depending on the time of year, staff can be going out doing survey work, monitoring, hydrological work, practical conservation management, as well as interventions for rare species.
Michael Strand, Community Fundraising Manager (L), and Andy Wright, Facilities Manager (R)
“As Suffolk’s nature charity, we've got an unrivalled learning and education programme. We set the trend for that across the movement back in the early 1980s, and we continue to shift the emphasis of our work from environmental education deliverers, to enabling people and communities to engage with wildlife in a way that is convenient to them.
“Alongside this, we’re also an accredited trainer of outdoor learning, forest schools, and beach schools, delivering certified courses to teachers and practitioners so they can become accredited so they can organise sustainable, meaningful action for wildlife across their community.
“We also run a programme of community courses across the county for people interested in discovering subjects like wild art, wildlife photography, willow weaving, or wood carving.
“Our Wilder Landscapes Programme is a new area of opportunity where we strategically work with groups of farmers and landowners, including two DEFRA funded Landscape Recovery Schemes covering in excess of 100,000 acres. We help advise, support, and guide landowners to look at ways in which they can adapt their practices to draw upon soon-to-come-onstream grant and funding pots that benefit wildlife while maintaining viable farming businesses.”
Currently, we face an ecological and climate crisis and, sadly nature is in decline, with almost one in six species now at risk of extinction. The UK is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world. If this decline continues, it will have a catastrophic impact to wildlife and humans, with extreme weather conditions becoming more common, flooding increasing, sea levels rising, and ecosystems collapsing. Yet this decline is not inevitable. When given space, time, and support, nature can recover, providing wider ecosystem services for society such as flood alleviation and pollution reduction. Suffolk Wildlife Trust plays a pivotal role in helping to restore nature and wildlife across the county. Its vision for the decade up to 2030 is to secure 30% of land for the recovery of nature, along with motivating one in four people to take regular meaningful action for the benefit of nature.
These targets are based on scientific modelling, which details that 30% of land in recovery for nature is an ecological tipping point, at which juncture nature has a greater chance to be self-sustaining.
“Biodiversity Net Gain (known as BNG) is a new planning requirement designed to leave biodiversity in a measurably better state after development, such as housebuilding. From February 2024, BNG became mandatory for most development in England and the UK Government has set the minimum level of BNG for developments to achieve at 10%. To help protect and restore nature across our county, we believe all development should be achieving at least 20% BNG. Suffolk County Council has already adopted its own policy aim to achieve a 20% BNG within its own housing programme, and we want other local authorities and all new development in Suffolk to follow suit.
Andy and Carly Buckenham (ABG Account Executive)
“A large part of what we do is to provide advice; that could be helping hedgehogs in a local homeowners garden to a multinational corporation that is seeking guidance on protecting habitats for a proposed development. Our consultancy arm, Wilder Ecology, is a Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management registered practice, along with our adviser team. As well as providing monitoring, surveying and on-site work, Wilder Ecology also brings in much needed funds for the charity.”, explains Michael.
Andy explains some of the changes the Trust itself is making,
Carbon reduction is something that falls in my job description and we’re working hard on it. We’ve just purchased a fleet of electric vans and cars, and we’re putting in a lot of infrastructure for that, including chargers and solar energy. It’s a long journey, but we’re getting there!
Alongside the income from the consultancy, the Trust relies on core funds generated from its members to be able to provide the outdoor spaces we all enjoy and make some of the larger investments required, such as species recovery projects and large land purchases.
Michael: “What sets us apart from other conservation NGOs is that we believe access to wildlife is a fundamental birthright in this country. We should all have access to nature because it supports us, our society, and our life support systems. Because we want wildlife to be available to everybody, our nature reserves remain free to visit. We are hugely grateful to our members for making this possible; we would like more people to join us however they can, as we urgently need more of us to do more to bring back wildlife.
“Alongside our membership, we're also supported by our donor programme, legacy givers, and grant giving bodies. Combined, they are a collective force for good and have enabled many of these land purchases that result in new green spaces for people and wildlife.”
Guaranteeing the Trust’s income requires continued commitment and delivering high impact outcomes.
This would be a much harder task without the support of its dedicated team of volunteers. However, funding is only one of the risks the Trust faces in its mission to support local ecology.
“The energy crisis has affected us massively. We have a lot of sites, so any increase in costs can have a big impact. We’re aiming towards net zero, so we’re investing heavily there, which will help us to be more resilient in the future.
“Having a lot of diverse sites and activity presents a lot of risks to the Trust. The public and public access is probably the main one; many of our nature reserves are wetlands or incorporate water bodies, but we have to manage that risk effectively while giving people a positive nature experience. So, putting a six-foot fence up wouldn’t work! We also have the property and infrastructure element, as well as our fleet vehicles, and lots of staff.” Andy describes some of the other risks the Trust faces.
Suffolk Wildlife Trust has been a client of Alan Boswell Group for over 15 years, providing them with insurance protection, risk management support, and employee benefits services.
Andy explains a bit more about how that works,
Alan Boswell Group does such a good job supporting us. We have a diverse portfolio, so it’s not easy to manage, but the support we receive from Carly [Buckenham, Account Executive], Alison [Sage, Commercial Account Handler] and, more recently, Rebecca [Dingle, Risk Management Adviser] on the risk management side gives us that additional guidance when we need it. They’re all amazing!
"I speak to Carly almost on a weekly basis. There are always questions or something that we're just not sure about. But having that same person I can speak to who knows what we do inside and out means we can have frank, sometimes difficult, conversations. That element of support we get works well for us.
“I think this has been a great turning point for our staff as well over the last few years to help them understand why insurance matters. It's very easy to get all the documents signed every year and then just forget about it. But it's really important to make sure everyone understands what they have to do to remain compliant.
“On the risk management side, Rebecca does a yearly audit for us and she’s always available throughout the year for any guidance we need. Recently, as the size of our projects have grown, Rebecca has also been helping us with complying with CDM [the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations].”
So, what’s next for the Trust?
Michael: “The landscape recovery work is absolutely key for us moving forward. There are several new funding streams coming along to help landowners and farmers look at how they can diversify or change their practices at a scale that nature so urgently needs. For us to advise, support, and consult on such work will help the delivery of collaborative, high quality, long-term solutions for nature’s recovery from which all of us will benefit. Alongside this, we’ll continue developing models and engagement activity with stakeholders and partners around advocacy and enabling communities to take local action.”
Click here to find out more about how you can support Suffolk Wildlife Trust.
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