Taking action for nature: volunteer time spent in conservation

Figure 1: Index of volunteer time spent on conservation activities within selected environmental organisations in the UK, 2000 to 2022

Figure 2: Index of volunteer time spent on conservation activities within selected environmental organisations in the UK, by category of work, 2000 to 2022

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.

International/domestic reporting

The UK Biodiversity Indicators have been reviewed in response to the latest goals and targets agreed under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The indicators are being adapted, with some new indicators being developed, to better align them with the monitoring framework for the GBF. The suite of biodiversity indicators is therefore expected to change ready for forthcoming UK national reports to CBD in 2026 and 2029.

Web links for further information

• Association of Inland Navigation Authorities Quantifying the extent and value of volunteering in relation to inland waterways (PDF, 508 kb))
• 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
• Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority
• Plantlife
• National Parks England
• Natural England
• Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
• The Wildlife Trusts
• Woodland Trust

Methodology

Data on volunteer time spent in conservation is submitted annually by the organisations that are reported in this indicator. Data is either provided as number of volunteer hours per year, or number of volunteer days per year. Where data is submitted as volunteer days per year, each day is recorded as 7.5 hours of volunteer time. Some organisations have been 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. For the analysis, the number of volunteer hours is converted to an index. The index is calculated using a non-weighted aggregation across organisations (set to 2000 = 100). The indicator also presents volunteer hours by category.

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.
• ‘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 2, and therefore the trends shown in this figure are different from the overall assessment in Figure 1. For the organisations that did return data, some 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, 2021 to 2022), 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 (2000,2001, 2017 and 2018). 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 Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland did not provide data for 2020, 2021 and 2022. 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.

Data provided by Butterfly Conservation for 2021 and 2022 does not include the full volunteer hours from the Butterflies for the New Millennium recording scheme and the National Moth recording scheme. These data are still being processed by Butterfly Conservation. Interpolation estimates, based on the 2020 volunteer data, have been used to fill these gaps. These figures will be updated when these data become available.

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.

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.

National Park data for England is now collected through the National Parks England Head Office, rather than by contacting individual National Parks directly.

Table 1 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 1. Organisations contributing data to the indicator

Development plan

Since our previous publication we have adapted the language and visualisations used in this indicator. We are keen to hear from our users about these changes, as well as our published development plan, please email us.