The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) is a UK-based international conservation charity working to conserve wetlands for wildlife and people. WWT manages 10 UK Wetland Centres, seven of which are designated Sites of Special Interest (SSI), five are Special Protection Areas (SPAs) and five are internationally important Ramsar sites. Within the wetland nature reserves are visitor centres, which encourage the 1 million visitors a year to engage with, and act for, wetlands and wildlife.

WWT has a department of wetland scientists that underpin their evidence-based conservation action. Research is conducted on ecosystem health, wetland wildlife monitoring and the role of wetlands for provision of ecosystem services and biodiversity. These research themes support national and international projects that protect wetland habitat through programmes in conservation breeding, sustainable livelihoods, policy and advocacy, wetland creation and wetland networking.

In this talk you will hear more about these projects and programmes, the future plans and aims of WWT. There will be special focus on health of people, namely the health and wellbeing benefits of wetlands to people (Jonathan’s area of research); and wildlife, namely  poisoning from lead ammunition, a complicated conservation conflict issue with an obvious, yet hard to reach, practical and policy solution.

Dr Jonathan Reeves is a Senior Ecosystem Health Officer at WWT researching the health and wellbeing benefits of wetlands. He is currently collaborating with Imperial College through a NERC-funded Valuing Nature Placement with Ans Vercammen (CEP) and Andrew Knight (Conservation Science) on the health benefits of WWT London Wetland Centre.