Accredited official statistics

Taking action for the environment: volunteer time spent in conservation

Updated 10 December 2024

Applies to England

Last updated: 2024

Latest data available: 2022

The number of indicators published as part of the Biodiversity Indicators suite will increase as new indicators are developed in response to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, consequently the Biodiversity Indicators production team may not have the capacity to continue to update this indicator in the future. If you use the data published for this indicator and feel this decision would impact you, please get in touch.

Introduction

This indicator shows the amount of volunteer time spent undertaking conservation activities for 10 organisations across the environmental sector in England (see background section for a full list). The work undertaken by conservation volunteers includes assisting with countryside management, carrying out surveys and inputting data, assisting with administrative tasks, and fundraising.

We are considering discontinuing this indicator at the England level and would like to hear feedback from users on this change. If you would like to discuss this further, please email us at [email protected].

Data for this indicator can be found in the published datafile. We also have a similar indicator at the UK level.

Type of indicator

Benefit indicator

Type of official statistic

Official statistic

Assessment of change

Assessment of change in volunteer time spent in conservation.

Measure	Assessment	Time period	Result
Conservation Volunteering	Long term	2000 to 2022	Improving
Conservation Volunteering	Short term	2017 to 2022	Improving

Notes on indicator assessment

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.

Key results

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

As indicated in Figure 1, between 2000 to 2022, the amount of time volunteers contributed to conservation activities in England increased by 36%. By contrast, it decreased by 3% in the 5 years to 2022. In the most recent year available, volunteer hours increased by 8%.

The amount of time spent volunteering during 2020 was significantly impacted by COVID-19 restrictions. This has affected these recent results and the trend of this indicator. Four of the ten 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 and this trend has continued into 2022. However, it still hasn’t returned to pre-COVID levels.

Although the indicator has decreased by 3% in the 5 years since 2017, the trends reported by the individual organisations vary considerably. For instance, the British Trust for Ornithology reported an increase in volunteer hours of more than 18% since 2017, whereas National Parks England reported a 23% decrease of volunteer hours over the same period. Both organisations continued conservation volunteering throughout 2020 and 2021.

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

Source: Bat Conservation Trust, British Trust for Ornithology, Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland (formerly Botanical Society of the British Isles), Canal & River Trust (formerly British Waterways), The Conservation Volunteers, National Parks England, Natural England, Plantlife, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), The Wildlife Trusts

Notes about Figure 1:

• The index is calculated using a non-weighted aggregation across organisations. It is therefore strongly dependent on which organisations are included and on the trends reported by the organisations recording large amounts for total volunteer hours.
• 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 any gaps. Further details are given in the methodology section
• Data provided by The Conservation Volunteers, Canal & River Trust (formerly British Waterways), National Parks England, Natural England, RSPB and The Wildlife Trusts were for financial years rather than calendar years. Financial year data have been assigned to the first calendar year (for example, 2019/20 data were allocated to 2019).
• Data for the Canal & River Trust (formerly British Waterways) include volunteering carried out in Wales.

Further detail

Some organisations provide a breakdown of volunteering hours (Figure 2). As not every organisation provides this breakdown, the trends shown in this figure are different from the overall assessment in Figure 1.

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

Source: Bat Conservation Trust, British Trust for Ornithology, Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland (formerly Botanical Society of the British Isles), Natural England, Plantlife, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)

Notes about Figure 2:

• The index is calculated using a non-weighted aggregation across organisations. It is therefore strongly dependent on which organisations are included and on the trends reported by the organisations recording large amounts for total volunteer hours.
• 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 any gaps. Further details are given in the background section
• Data provided by Natural England and RSPB were for financial years rather than calendar years. Financial year data have been assigned to the first calendar year (for example, 2019/20 data were allocated to 2019).

For information on the methods used in this indicator, please see the technical annex

Due to COVID-19 restrictions there was a significant drop in volunteer hours in 2020 across three of the four work categories. All organisations 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. Two organisations, Bat Conservation Trust and British Trust for Ornithology, recorded hours in the ‘survey, data input and analysis’ during 2020. This is the only category that did not report a decrease in volunteer time over this period. This can be explained by the option to undertake bat, bird and butterfly surveys locally, complying with lockdown restrictions, as well as the option for lone working. The same two organisations recorded volunteer hours in the ‘administrative or office support’ category while all other organisations ceased volunteering across all categories during this time.

The sharp fall in ‘countryside management & advisory support’ in 2010 was mainly driven by the RSPB reporting a lower than average number of volunteer hours for his category. Finally, the 2011 peak in volunteer hours relating to ‘administrative or office support’ was driven by the RSPB reporting an increased number of volunteers in this category and the British Trust for Ornithology reporting a sharp fall in numbers the following year when the ‘Bird Atlas Project’ ended. Historically, organisations have reported that some 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.

In the most recent year of data collection, volunteer hours increased in the ‘countryside management and advisory support’, ‘survey, data input and analysis’ and ‘administration or office support’ categories as COVID-19 restrictions began to ease in 2021. There has been a slight decrease in volunteer hours in the ‘other conservation work’ category in the most recent year of data collection.

A decrease in time spent volunteering between 2000 and 2001 (Figure 1) 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 is 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 6 of the 10 organisations in the indicator and the subsequent decrease in 2012 was due to a drop in the number of volunteers across 7 of the organisations, most notably: the British Trust for Ornithology, The Wildlife Trusts, The Conservation Volunteers and the RSPB. The high point in the data series in 2018 is due to all organisations except one recording an increase in volunteer time, this compares with 3 organisations recording an increase in 2019. 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.

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

This indicator feeds into the Outcome Indicator Framework, a set of indicators describing environmental change related to the ten goals within the 25 year Environment Plan. As part of the Outcome Indicator Framework, this data contributes towards the evidence base used to prepare the annual progress report for the Environmental Improvement Plan. This indicator contributes to OIF indicator G5: People engaged in social action for the environment.

Web links for further information

• Bat Conservation Trust
• Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland
• British Trust for Ornithology
• Canal & River Trust
• The Conservation Volunteers
• Plantlife
• National Parks England
• Natural England
• Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
• The Wildlife Trusts

Acknowledgements

Thank you to the many people who have contributed by providing data, particularly the volunteers who make such a significant contribution to the time spent on nature conservation in the UK.

Technical annex

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.

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 Canal & River Trust (2000 to 2009), The Conservation Volunteers (2000 to 2005), Natural England (2000 and 2002), National Parks England (2000 to 2008), Plantlife (2000 to 2006), British Trust for Ornithology (2000 to 2011), and The Wildlife Trusts (2000 to 2003, 2006). 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 Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland did not provide data for the most recent update of this indicator. 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 in the next update to this indicator.

The 2021 index for the ‘survey, data input and analysis’ and ‘other’ categories have been updated this year with revised data from RSPB.

Some larger organisations are unable to report volunteering effort for England separately and report only for Great Britain or the UK. Such organisations have been excluded from the England index, which affects the trend in volunteering in England compared with the UK as a whole.

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. While none of the charities utilised any changes to their methodologies during the 2024 update, data were revised in 2018 to account for earlier methodological improvements made by The Wildlife Trusts. The charts and assessments presented here together with the accompanying dataset are therefore not comparable to those published prior to the 2018 update of this indicator.

Background

This indicator is based on data on volunteer hours supplied by 10 conservation charities and public bodies operating in England:

• Bat Conservation Trust
• Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland (formerly Botanical Society of the British Isles)
• The Conservation Volunteers
• British Trust for Ornithology
• Canal & River Trust (formerly British Waterways)
• National Parks England
• Natural England
• Plantlife
• RSPB
• The Wildlife Trust

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

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.