Habitats for wildlife

Please help us to save threatened habitats and the endangered bumblebees that depend on them

Bumblebees, butterflies and many other invertebrates are disappearing, and the reasons are clear: the flower-rich habitats which they depend on have almost vanished from our countryside. Please support our work protecting, enhancing and restoring these habitats by donating to the BBCT habitat fund.

One of our immediate priorities is to safeguard the few remaining populations of Britain's rarest and most critically endangered bumblebee species - the Shrill Carder Bumblebee and the Great Yellow Bumblebee. These species are now only known from a few scattered sites, and without urgent help we may lose them forever. There are several other species which are also threatened, but many of these occur at sites used by the Great Yellow and Shrill Carder, so by helping these two species we can help other bumblebees too.

The Shrill Carder bumblebee is a beautiful little creature, which urgently needs our help. In the face of major changes to the way in which the countryside is managed its numbers have plummeted.

Likewise, the once widespread Great Yellow Bumblebee is in serious decline and is now restricted to the Western Isles, Orkney and a few scattered sites along the north coast of Scotland. Unfortunately, in some areas the management of these important habitats is changing. The Great Yellow is becoming restricted to ever smaller fragments of suitable habitat. The changes not only threaten unique habitats, but also the insects, birds and other animals that depend on them.

To protect and improve habitats we need to work with farmers and land managers. In many areas the farmers and crofters are already doing a great job! By managing their land in a sensitive way they are creating areas in which bumblebees can thrive. We hope to work with more local communities, farmers and crofters throughout the UK to help improve local habitats and safeguard bumblebees for future generations.

We're always on the look-out for opportunities to improve the management of land. In the right circumstances we may opt to buy land to restore and protect, but at present it seems more cost-effective to use our resources for advocacy work and in partnerships and management agreements which will hopefully bring about rapid and positive changes.

Please help us to protect habitats and save our rare bumblebees!

If you'd like to support our work and help us to create flower-rich habitats across the UK then please donate to the BBCT habitat fund today.

Simply click on the button on the right to donate now via Pay Pal

Any amount, no matter how small, would be a big help - it all adds up!

However, as a special thanks to particularly generous donors who pledge £200 or more we will send a signed and framed photo of a rare bumblebee

Pay Pal is a secure online service which accepts major credit and debit cards.

Alternatively, post a cheque to:

BBCT habitat fund
School of Biological Sciences
University of Stirling
Stirling
FK9 4LA
Be sure to fill in a gift aid form

You can keep an eye on the fundraising thermometer on the right to see how much you've helped us to raise.

Not buying a reserve?

People who have visited this page before, or perhaps those of you that have donated in the past may be wondering if we're still planning on buying land. It's certainly something that we hope to do eventually, but in the immediate future our policy has changed slightly. Buying land is very expensive, and yet once bought it still has to be managed. Our view is that the outcome, namely wildlife-rich habitats, is most cost-effectively acheived through partnerships and management agreements.

We hope that donors, particularly those who were kind enough to become reserve founders, will understand this slight change of policy. Please feel free to contact us if you'd like to discuss things in more detail.