Volunteering your time, energy, and skills is a fantastic way to help nature’s recovery.
Traditionally, we perhaps think of managing nature reserves and volunteer work parties. But many people in Oxfordshire volunteer their time and skills, not just to manage reserves, but also to create and manage local green spaces and groups, contribute to environmental talks, workshops, and community eco fairs and events. You help with litter picks, take part in citizen science initiatives, campaign and freely give your expertise and time towards making our County a better place for nature. Many of us are changing our daily habits, lifestyles, and our private gardens to better serve the environment; giving up time in our personal lives to find out what’s best for the planet and acting on it is a form of volunteering too.
There are many different ways you can help, so choose the option (or options!) which suit you best, and together we can achieve nature’s recovery in Oxfordshire.
As individuals we can make a difference. However, volunteering as part of a community group can be even better! With over 20 years of supporting and working with local environmental community groups, we are proud to support the inspirational work happening across the County.
Community nature groups are often looking for a wide range of skills including project management, accounting, social media, and event organisation.
Check out our Guidance for Community Groups to find out more about the 100 groups giving their time and resources to help our planet recover.
Parish and Town Councils have a brilliant opportunity to make a big difference by supporting their local nature group, ensuring their Neighbourhood Plan has policies to enhance nature, and managing green spaces for nature. By joining your local parish or town council, you can lead the way to a more biodiverse neighbourhood for the benefit of the whole community. Check out our Guidance for Parish and Town Councils to find out more.
If you’re looking to volunteer for a conservation charity, try searching ‘volunteer’ in our directory. Or check out these conservation organisations:
· Green Gyms
· Oxford Conservation Volunteers
· Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre
· Berkshire Buckinghamshire Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust
· Earth Trust
· Wychwood Trust
Businesses have the potential to make a big positive contribution to nature’s recovery.
Many businesses are well aware of the need to become Net Zero, but as the Confederation of British Industry states "Firms must understand how their activity can lead to nature loss... you can't be net zero without being nature positive".
Many companies across Oxfordshire have started their Nature Positive Business journey, from Harwell Campus creating biodiverse habitats on their sites, to the University of Oxford setting an ambition to achieve a gain in Biodiversity by 2035. You can join our Thames Valley Business and Nature Recovery Linked-In group for peer support, and join us at our annual networking events (sign up to our Bulletin to hear about the next one!).
Use our Guidance for Businesses to encourage your employer to begin their Nature Positive journey.
Anyone can become a citizen scientist, using your time and skills to provide additional information to professional science projects.
You can learn more about how you can collect and share wildlife sightings from the Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre. Learn how to record the wildlife you see and contribute to our data collection so that your records can be used in local decision-making.
In Oxfordshire, many of our Catchment Partnerships are looking for citizen scientists to help them collect water quality data.
In Oxfordshire we have:
Evenlode Catchment Partnership - Hosted by Wild Oxfordshire
Thame Catchment Partnership - Hosted by Freshwater Habitats Trust &Thame Conservation Trust
Windrush Catchment Partnership - Hosted by Cotswolds Rivers Trust
Cherwell & Ray Catchment Partnership - Hostedby BBOWT & Thames 21
Ock Catchment Partnership - Hosted by Freshwater Habitat's Trust
South Chilterns Catchment Partnership - Hosted by Thames 21L
Wild Oxfordshire doesn't respond to consultations or petitions, but we are keen to raise awareness and empower more people to engage with and respond to consultations should they wish to.
As an individual, you can help protect nature by responding to planning consultations via your local planning authority planning portal. The more individual responses a planning authority receives, the more powerful our collective voice for nature will be.
We include information about current consultations on our monthly environmental Bulletin, so sign up to receive those, and check out our Planning & Development Guidance.
You may wish to subscribe to the CPRE Oxfordshire newsletter to hear about how you can support their campaigns If you are interested in what environmental NGOs are saying about national consultations, then check out the Wildlife and Countryside Link website.
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