Skip to main content

Our impact

Since 1975, Vincent Wildlife Trust has been making a difference to some of Britain's and Ireland's threatened mammals through sound scientific research and innovative conservation solutions.

Making a difference

Safeguarding vital roosts for rare bat species 37
From the brink of extinction during the 1970s, the otter is now found on every main river catchment 100 main river catchments
Pine martens translocated from Scotland to Wales and southwest England More than 100 pine martens

VWT delivers evidence-led recovery of threatened species

  • VWT reserves safeguard more than 50% of the greater horseshoe bat population in Britain, along with 10% of the lesser horseshoe bat population in Britain and 25% of the lesser horseshoe bat population in Ireland.
  • Between 2015 and 2025, more than 100 pine martens have been successfully translocated, re-establishing expanding populations of pine martens in Wales and parts of southwest England. Pine martens have now returned to many counties across Wales and the English border counties, resulting in a resilient metapopulation.
  • VWT's work on assisted colonisation has facilitated the range expansion of greater horseshoe bats to establish a viable breeding population in southeast England, which is the first breeding record for the species in 100 years at 100km east of a stronghold in Dorset.
  • VWT’s focus on conservation through species recovery increases and maintains species richness, which in turn contributes to maintaining biodiversity and wider ecosystem resilience. Our work to restore and reinforce pine marten populations and support greater horseshoe bat range expansion has increased species richness in the areas where these species are now found. 

VWT conducts research to advance and assess our conservation actions, publishing our work in peer reviewed journals and guidebooks for access by conservation scientists and practitioners

  • Since 2020, VWT staff and students have published or contributed to 40 peer reviewed papers.
  • Since 2020, VWT staff have produced 35 reports, practitioner handbooks and books.
  • Since the 1990s, more than 20 VWT-supported PhD students have conducted their research with us, advancing their conservation practitioner knowledge alongside their academic development.

VWT works in partnership to increase conservation impact

  • VWT’s Marten on the Move pine marten project — funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund — is working with four national partners to develop Pine Marten Havens across Britain. These partners are Coed Cadw (Woodland Trust in Wales) and Natural Resources Wales at Wentwood, Wales; National Trust at Wallington, England; and Forestry and Land Scotland at Kirroughtree, Scotland.
  • VWT's Barbastelle Project is part of Natur am Byth — Wales's nature recovery programme — led by Natural Resources Wales in partnership with nine wildlife charities.
  • VWT worked in partnership with Sussex Bat Group to raise funds to buy and restore a derelict building for a pioneering breeding population of greater horseshoe bats in West Sussex.
  • VWT engages with volunteers and citizen scientists — in 2024 generating 781 Irish stoat validated records so far for the Irish Stoat Citizen Science Survey and 896 validated records so far for the fourth National Polecat Survey.

Watch out for VWT's Impact Report — Fifty Years of Making a Difference to Threatened Mammals

The Impact Report is due to be published in November 2025

VWT's Martens on the Move project, funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, is working in partnership to develop a Pine Marten Haven Site in each of England, Scotland and Wales.
VWT worked in partnership with Sussex Bat Group to raise funds for a vital new greater horseshoe bat maternity roost in southeast England following the discovery that the species was breeding there — the first record in 100 years and 100 miles east of its known stronghold in Dorset.