National Bat Conference

The Bat Conservation Trust invites you to join us for the biggest event in the bat calendar! The 2012 National Bat Conference will be held at the University of York on 14-16 September.

To book your place at this year's National Bat Conference please click here.

Discounts

Until early April BCT members can receive an 'early bookers' discount on their conference booking. For more information please click here (members only).

Programme

The programme will cover many exciting and varied subjects. If you have never attended our Conference before then do consider coming along - there’s always something new to learn, even for the most knowledgeable bat enthusiasts!

Request for Abstracts

Due to the success of abstract requests for the 2011 conference, we will be following the same procedure for the 2012 conference and are now inviting abstracts for the following session themes:

1. Mitigating for the needs of bats

It is important that any development with the potential to impact bats has effective mitigation. This session seeks to share best practice in this field and from innovative designs and bespoke solutions for licenced activities, to the design and use of purpose built structures and habitats for enhancement.

2. Managed landscapes

Current land use leaves very little land unmanaged. An essential aspect of conservation is balancing land management objectives with the needs of bats and other biodiversity. Research and findings that give an insight into considerations and practices in managed habitats such as woodland, farmland and recreational areas, will be presented under this theme. 

3. New developments in surveying and monitoring

The invention of new equipment and novel techniques has made it possible to monitor species once considered to be beyond the reach of surveillance or research. Talks in this session will address new technologies and their potential application, or recently established initiatives linked to species monitoring or survey.

4. Conservation partnerships in local landscapes

Local knowledge and understanding is essential to projects that deliver conservation benefits, whether it is through hands on habitat enhancement to community engagement. This session provides an overview of the successes and lessons learnt from working at a local level with different groups.  

5. Bat ecology

Whether actions for bat conservation succeed is greatly influenced by whether the needs of individual species and bat communities are sufficiently understood. This session focuses on single and multi- species studies of bat ecology or behaviour undertaken within the UK or internationally.

6. Protecting bats and biodiversity: law legislation and planning

The past ten years has seen a progressive increase in addressing European Protected Species as part of the planning process, enforcement sector and professional consultancy. As a result there is a need for greater understanding of the factors that influence good practice across all sectors. This session aims to cover the pressures facing this area of work and methods being developed to address them from bat group involvement in the planning process to changes in the licensing system.

7. Emerging issues in bat conservation

Potential threats to bat populations including the impact of wind turbines, new building design and materials and lethal fungal infections such as white-nose syndrome have all been recognised as concerns within the recent past. This theme will give insight into these and other potential issues.

The deadline for submitting talk abstracts has been extended to Friday 20 January 2012. If you are interested in presenting at the 2012 National Bat Conference please send a short abstract (approx 300-400 words) to Helen Miller (hmiller@bats.org.uk).

Workshops

Additionally if you would like to give a workshop at the conference, please submit an abstract (approx 300-400 words), providing a brief overview of the workshop to Helen Miller (hmiller@bats.org.uk).

Previous Conferences

• 2011 Abstracts - abstracts of talks given at the 2011 National Bat Conference
• 2010 Abstracts - abstract of talks given at the 2010 National Bat Conference
  2009 Abstracts - abstract of talks given at the 2009 National Bat Conference
• 2008 Abstracts - abstract of talks given at the 2008 National Bat Conference