The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (RSWT)

The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (RSWT) is an independent charity, with a membership formed of the 47 individual charitable Trusts.The Wildlife Trusts, between them, look after around 2,300 nature reserves covering more than 98,000 hectares.

The Wildlife Trusts’ key role is its presence on the ground in local communities  working with landowners, businesses and local fishing industries, to try to achieve change for wildlife. The Trusts also work in partnership with community groups and environmental and social NGOs with shared objectives. Where possible the Trusts try to build consensus and find pragmatic solutions which achieve positive outcomes for wildlife - and nature's recovery in communities across the UK. 

There are 47 individual Wildlife Trusts covering the whole of the UK and the Isle of Man and Alderney.

• Together The Wildlife Trusts are the largest UK voluntary organisation dedicated to protecting wildlife and wild places everywhere – on land and at sea.
• We are supported by more than 800,000 members, 150,000 of which belong to our junior branch - Wildlife Watch.
• Every year The Wildlife Trusts work with thousands of schools and welcome millions of visitors to our nature reserves and visitor centres.
• The UK-wide part of our organisation was founded in 1912 by the banker and naturalist Charles Rothschild. By the end of the 1960s Wildlife Trusts had been formed across the Bitish Isles (usually, but not always, at a county-wide level). Trusts were often set up by local activists determined to save what they could - the last remaining meadows, ancient woods, heaths - in the face of widespread devastation to our natural environment.