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A2. Taking action for nature: volunteer time spent in conservation

Type: Response Indicator

This indicator was updated in 2023.

Introduction

This indicator presents an index of the number of hours worked by volunteers for 14 UK conservation charities and public bodies (including National Parks England which represents all National Parks in England – see background section for a full list). Conservation volunteering includes any voluntary activity for an organisation or community undertaken to: further the understanding, protection or enjoyment of the natural environment, including wildlife recording and surveying; practical countryside management; providing education, training and guided walks; and administration or other office support.

Key results

The amount of time people spend volunteering to assist with conservation in part reflects society’s interest in and commitment to biodiversity.

The amount of time spent volunteering was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions. This has affected the recent trend of this indicator.

Between 2000 and 2019, the amount of time volunteers contributed to conservation activities in the UK increased by 61%. Since 2019 it has fallen substantially and in 2021 was just 28% higher than it was in 2000.  In the most recent year available, volunteer hours increased by 74%.

Figure A2i. Index of volunteer time spent on conservation activities with selected environmental organisations in the UK, 2000 to 2021

Figure A2i is a line graph showing how the index of volunteer time spent on conservation activities with selected environmental organisations in the UK has changed between 2000 and 2021. The graph shows a decrease between 2000 and 2001 due to foot and mouth disease followed by a gradual increase between 2002 and 2018, with some fluctuations. in 2019 and 2020 there was a significant sharp drop due to Covid-19 restrictions

Notes about Figure A2i:

  1. The index is calculated using a non-weighted aggregation across organisations. It is therefore strongly dependent on the trends reported by the organisations recording large amounts for total volunteer hours.
  2. Historical data were not available for all organisations in all years. To make best use of available data and to allow a combined index to be compiled, interpolation estimates have been used to fill gaps. Further details are given in the background section.
  3. Data provided by the Canal & River Trust (formerly British Waterways); The Conservation Volunteers; Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park Authority; National Parks England; Natural England; Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority; RSPB and The Wildlife Trusts were for financial years rather than calendar years. Financial year data have been assigned to the first calendar year (e.g. 2019 to 2020 data were allocated to 2019).
  4. The data series was revised in 2018 due to some organisations, most notably The Wildlife Trusts, providing updated figures for previous years (see background section for further details). The methodology used to calculate the interpolated estimates was also revised in 2018. This chart is therefore not comparable to those presented in publications prior to 2018.
  5. The Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland and the Woodland Trust did not provide data for 2020 and 2021. Interpolation estimates have not been used to fill these gaps as results will have been impacted by COVID-19 restrictions. These figures will be reported when they are available.
  6. Data provided by Butterfly Conservation for 2020 and 2021 does not include volunteer hours from the Butterflies for the New Millenium recording scheme. Interpolation estimates have not been used to fill these gaps as results will have been impacted by COVID-19 restrictions. These figures will be reported when they are available.

Source: Bat Conservation Trust; Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland; British Trust for Ornithology; Butterfly Conservation; Canal & River Trust; The Conservation Volunteers; Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park Authority; Natural England; National Parks England; Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority; Plantlife; Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB); The Wildlife Trusts, Woodland Trust.

Assessment of change in volunteer time spent in conservation

  Long term Short term Latest year
Conservation volunteering

Improving

2000–2021

Deteriorating

 2016–2021

Increased

(2021)

Notes for Assessment of Change table:

Long- and short-term assessments are based on a 3% rule of thumb. Where possible, the base years for these assessments use a three-year average. See Assessing Indicators.

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Indicator description

The substantial decrease in volunteer time during 2020 can be attributed to the COVID-19 restrictions. Six of the fourteen organisations ceased volunteering entirely during this time, with the remaining organisations significantly reducing volunteer hours over the same period. Time spent volunteering began to increase in 2021 as restrictions eased.

A decrease in time spent volunteering between 2000 and 2001 can be attributed to a decline in all conservation activity due to controls on countryside access during the Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak. The small peak in volunteer time in 2007 was largely driven by an increase in volunteer numbers at The Conservation Volunteers which initiated a number of large youth programmes in that year. The 2011 high point, however, was driven by increases in the volunteer hours reported by nine of the 14 organisations in the indicator and the subsequent decrease in 2012 was due to a drop in the number of volunteers across seven of the organisations, most notably: the British Trust for Ornithology, The Wildlife Trusts, The Conservation Volunteers and the RSPB. The high point in 2018 is due to all organisations except one recording an increase in volunteer time. These changes reflect: (i) the cyclical nature of some projects undertaken, such as tree planting and work on specific nature reserves and (ii) the revised methodologies used to survey and record the number of volunteer hours.

Although the indicator has decreased by 9% in the five years since 2016, trends reported by individual organisations vary considerably. For instance, RSPB reported an increase in volunteer hours of more than 43% despite ceasing volunteering during 2020, whereas Natural England reported a decrease of 100% over the same period.

The amount of time spent volunteering increased in 2021 as COVID-19 restrictions were eased.

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Relevance

Volunteer time is one way of assessing the level of public engagement with biodiversity. Volunteering for conservation charities is critical to the successful delivery of many of the objectives of the country biodiversity and environment strategies – for example, volunteers collect much of the data used for monitoring the status of species and also undertake practical work to manage threatened habitats.

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Background

The indicator is based on data on volunteer hours supplied by 14 conservation charities and public bodies operating in the UK:

  • Bat Conservation Trust
  • Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland 
  • British Trust for Ornithology
  • Butterfly Conservation
  • Canal & River Trust 
  • The Conservation Volunteers
  • Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park Authority
  • National Parks England (National Park data for England are now collected through the National Parks England Head Office, rather than by contacting individual National Parks directly)
  • Natural England
  • Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority
  • Plantlife
  • Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
  • The Wildlife Trusts
  • Woodland Trust

Table A2i provides information on whether the organisations contributing to the indicator provided data for the whole or part of the United Kingdom (UK) or Great Britain (GB) (England, Scotland and Wales).

Table A2i. Organisations contributing data to the indicator

Providing UK- or GB-wide data

Providing data for part of the UK

Bat Conservation Trust

Canal & River Trust

Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland

Loch Lomond & The Trossochs National Park Authority

British Trust for Ornithology

National Parks England

Butterfly Conservation

Natural England

The Conservation Volunteers

Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority

Plantlife

 

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

 

The Wildlife Trusts

 

Woodland Trust

 

Some organisations were able to provide accurate figures for the number of hours worked; others provided estimates based on the number of volunteers and an estimate of average days worked by their volunteers each year.

Data are not available for all organisations in all years. For the current indicator, missing values have been estimated by Defra statisticians. In the historical dataset estimates have been used in the index calculations for the Canal & River Trust (formerly British Waterways) (2000 to 2009), Butterfly Conservation (2000 to 2002), The Conservation Volunteers (2000 to 2005), Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park Authority (2000, 2001 and 2003), National Parks England (2000 to 2008), Natural England (2000 and 2002), Plantlife (2000 to 2006), The Wildlife Trusts (2000 to 2003 and 2006), and the Woodland Trust (2000 and 2001). The estimates were based on (a) the trend in the data provided by the organisation, and (b) the trend in the data provided by other organisations for the missing years. The number of volunteer hours has been converted to an index (set to 2000 = 100).

The methodology used by conservation charities can change from year to year. This can cause fluctuations in the data, particularly where there are revised methods used by charities that have previously recorded large amounts for total volunteer hours. In 2014, The Wildlife Trusts improved their methodology to more accurately record volunteer hours and to only report activities undertaken by registered volunteers, rather than those undertaken by registered and casual volunteers. This resulted in a 40% drop in recorded hours for that year. As The Wildlife Trusts accounted for 20% of the total number of volunteer hours in 2014, this change had a noticeable effect on the overall trend and it was largely responsible for the significant fall in the indicator from 2013 to 2014 that has been reported in previous publications. It also had a negative impact on the short-term assessments of this indicator reported in 2016 and 2017. Rather than continuing to allow this methodological change to adversely affect the results, when the actual fall in volunteer hours was much smaller than that previously reported, Defra statisticians obtained additional information from The Wildlife Trusts. This information has been used to scale the data from 2000 to 2013 in such a way that it now provides estimates for volunteering that are broadly equivalent to those provided under the new methodology. While the chart, values and accompanying datasheet are therefore not comparable to those in previous publications, they do present a clearer trend for conservation volunteering in the UK since 2000. In addition, Butterfly Conservation are working to improve their methodology for calculating hours spent on survey work due to a shift over the past 5+ years in how volunteers record butterflies (largely driven by the introduction of recording apps). The number of volunteers recording butterflies has continued to increase but the calculation of hours needs revision, which will likely result in a decrease in total volunteer hours.

In broad terms, the type of work undertaken by volunteers falls into four categories:

  • Countryside management & advisory support;
  • Surveys, data input & analysis;
  • Administrative or office support; and
  • ‘Other conservation work’, which includes activities such as fundraising, training and educational events.

Not every organisation provides the breakdown of volunteering hours shown in Figure A2ii, and therefore the trends shown in this figure are different from the overall assessment in Figure A2i.

Volunteer hours relating to all four work categories listed above have increased in 2021 (Figure A2ii).

Due to COVID-19 restrictions there was a significant drop in volunteer hours in 2020 across all four work categories. All organisations, except Butterfly Conservation, ceased volunteering in ‘countryside management and advisory support’ and only one organisation, Bat Conservation Trust, reported volunteer hours in the ‘other’ category during this period. Three organisations, Bat Conservation Trust, British Trust for Ornithology and Butterfly Conservation, recorded hours in the ‘survey, data input and analysis’ during 2020. This can be explained by the option to undertake bat, bird and butterfly surveys locally, complying with COVID-19 restrictions, as well as the option for lone working. The same three organisations recorded volunteer hours in the ‘administrative or office support’ category while all other organisations ceased volunteering across all categories during this time.

In the most recent year of data collection, volunteer hours across all four categories increased as COVID-19 restrictions began to ease in 2021.

The 2011 to 2013 peak in ‘countryside management & advisory support’ was driven by several organisations, most notably the RSPB and the Woodland Trust reporting a higher than average number of volunteer hours for this category. The sharp rise in hours relating to ‘other conservation work’ in 2010 was driven by the RSPB and the sharp fall in hours relating to ‘administrative or office support’ by the British Trust for Ornithology, the latter reporting an end to the ‘Bird Atlas Project’ as a reason for the decrease. Historically, organisations have reported that changes are due to shifts in strategic focus that result in significant adjustments to projects such as tree planting. They have also cited the need to consider changes to volunteer numbers in order to comply with health and safety regulations.

Figure A2ii. Index of volunteer time spent on conservation activities with selected environmental organisations in the UK, by category of work, 2000 to 2021

Figure A2ii is a line graph showing changes in the UK in the conservation volunteering index between 2000 and 2020, by activity type (countryside management & advisory support; surveys, data input & analysis; administrative or office support; and ‘other conservation work’.  All activities show considerable variation, including a sharp drop in activity in 2019 and 2020 due to Covid-19 restrictions

Notes about Figure A2ii:

  1. Interpolated estimates have been used to fill missing years for Butterfly Conservation (2000 to 2002), Natural England (2000 and 2002), Plantlife (2000 to 2006) and the Woodland Trust (2000, 2001, 2017 and 2018).
  2. The data series was revised in 2018 due to some organisations, most notably The Wildlife Trusts, providing updated figures for previous years (see background section for further details). The methodology used to calculate the interpolated estimates was also revised in 2018. This chart is therefore not comparable to those presented in publications prior to 2018.
  3. The Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland and the Woodland Trust did not provide data for 2020 and 2021. Interpolation estimates have not been used to fill these gaps as results will have been impacted by COVID-19 restrictions. These figures will be reported when they are available.
  4. Data provided by Butterfly Conservation for 2020 and 2021 does not include volunteer hours from the Butterflies for the New Millenium recording scheme. Interpolation estimates have not been used to fill these gaps as results will have been impacted by COVID-19 restrictions. These figures will be reported when they are available.

Source: Bat Conservation Trust; Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland; British Trust for Ornithology; Butterfly Conservation; Natural England; Plantlife; Royal Society for the Protection of Birds; Woodland Trust.

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Goals and Targets

The UK and England Biodiversity Indicators are currently being assessed alongside the Environment Improvement Plan Targets, and the new Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework Targets, when this work has been completed the references to Biodiversity 2020 and the Aichi Global Biodiversity Framework Targets will be updated.

Aichi Targets for which this is a primary indicator

Strategic Goal A. Address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss by mainstreaming biodiversity across government and society.

Aichi Target 1 icon

Target 1: By 2020, at the latest, people are aware of the values of biodiversity and the steps they can take to conserve and use it sustainably.

 

Aichi Targets for which this is a relevant indicator

Strategic Goal A. Address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss by mainstreaming biodiversity across government and society.

Aichi Target 2 icon

Target 2: By 2020, at the latest, biodiversity values have been integrated into national and local development and poverty reduction strategies and planning processes and are being incorporated into national accounting, as appropriate, and reporting systems.

Aichi Target 4 icon

Target 4: By 2020, at the latest, Governments, business and stakeholders at all levels have taken steps to achieve or have implemented plans for sustainable production and consumption and have kept the impacts of use of natural resources well within safe ecological limits.

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Downloads

Download the Datasheet from JNCC's Resource Hub.

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Last updated: November 2023

Latest data available: 2021 (and financial year 2020 to 2021)

 

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Categories:

UK Biodiversity Indicators 2023

Published: .

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